The Treasure of Jamaica Reef (1975)

I honestly don't get it! How is it possible that this movie was so dreadfully boring in spite of all the indicators of pure 70's entertainment? Look at all the potentially great stuff here: we have a plot about cursed treasures in sunken galleons, the robust macho actor Stephen Boyd, marvelously exotic Granada filming locations, Jordan Ladd's equally astounding mother Cheryl in a tiny bikini, shark attacks and boat explosions! Adventure movies like this are practically a guaranteed success, yet somehow director Virginia L. Stone managed to ruin the formula entirely. How? Through a combination of inexplicably slow pacing, completely inappropriate slapstick elements and a ridiculous Benny Hill-esquire score and the overuse of irritating clichés (like villains with atrocious German accents). At the scene of a crime, homicide inspector Hugo Graham finds an ancient treasure map that supposedly carries a curse with it. All the previous nine owners of the map died violent deaths, regardless of whether they even attempted to track down the treasure or not. Fascinated by the mystery, Graham takes a photocopy of the map and mobilizes four of his friends to go treasure hunting during his annual vacation. As if the film itself isn't boring enough yet, there's also Boyd's completely unnecessary and monotonous narration. The action sequences and stunts are poorly handled, stupid and too obviously fake. All the available budget for this movie clearly went to the waterproof camera equipment and location hunters. Admittedly the underwater photography is impressive and the Jamaica/Granada locations look like postcards, with their crystal blue waters, colorful reefs and tropical sandy beaches.

I picked up a copy of this movie on VHS last year (2008) as it looked interesting after reading the cover, I was certainly wrong about that! I found this to be one of the most boring movies I've ever seen, very slow moving and poor quality too.But, it has one good point, excellent underwater photography which kept me watching it.Not a bad cast too, including Stephen Boyd (Fantastic Voyage), David Ladd and Cheryl Ladd.A boring 75 minutes, worth watching only for the underwater photography.Rating: 2 stars out of 5.

I own a G-rated alternate cut of this film entitled "The Treasure of Jamaica Reef;" I watched it and found it to be a very pleasant and enjoyable diversion. A motley assortment of intrepid and adventurous divers who include Stephen Boyd as the laid-back leader, a pre-"Charlie's Angels" Cheryl Ladd as the token feisty hottie chick, the hulking Rosey Grier as a gregarious steamboat captain and Darby Hinton as a brash young kid go searching in the Caribbean sea for a sunken Spanish galleon which contains a fortune in gold coins. Naturally, finding said galleon and retrieving the coins proves to be an extremely difficult and challenging task.Virginia Stone's snappy direction, working from J.A.S. McCombie's lively, colorful script, keeps the nonstop pace hurtling along throughout, maintains a charmingly breezy'n'easy goofy tone, elicits spirited performances from an amiable cast, and stages several stirring action set pieces with considerable panache (a rousing car chase, some rough'n'tumble fisticuffs and a thrilling beat-the-clock rescue operation are the definite highlights). The lovely, picturesque widescreen cinematography (the underwater photography is especially breathtaking and impressive), the gorgeous Jamiacan locations, Christopher Stone's bouncy score, and the spectacular sight of the tiny, delectable Ms. Ladd in a skimpy bikini further add to the infectiously frothy merriment. An engagingly silly and good-natured piece of lightweight fluff.

A cobbled together non-film, which ranks as one of the most tedious 75 minutes I have ever spent.The story, for what its worth, concerns a cop who comes into the possession of a cursed treasure map - he takes a vacation and jets off to the Caribbean to try and find the sunken treasure.There may be more to the plot than this, but it would be impossible to tell from watching this utter shambles of a film - the increasingly random and meaningless scenes are tenuously held together by voice-over explanations. Arbitrary underwater footage is used whenever the stitched together dialogue scenes go off at too great a tangent.The search for the treasure totters along until the spare footage runs out and we have the cop returning to his desk delivering some banal story wrap-up.Don't misunderstand me, I am a lover of rubbish films, but 'Evil in the Deep' doesn't even register on my scale as a film in the proper sense - there is no characterisation, no dialogue of any consequence, no continuity, no token nudity, no nothing ! ! Even Cheryl Ladd (billed as Cheryl Stoppelmoor) in a bikini can't save this from sinking like a brick.As the video cover states - "Rips your Nerves to Shreds" - too right! I was a gibbering wreck after being subjected to this water torture. I can't figure out how to quantify just how bad this film is, but 'Jaws IV The Revenge' is at least 10 times better.