Deep, The (Blu-ray)

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Author and screenwriter Peter Benchley struck gold with "Jaws" (1975), and "The Deep" (1977) was a follow-up film that tried for gold again . . . this time, literally. Both films were based on his first and second novels, which had been published the previous year. But until "The Beast" almost 15 years later, Benchley wouldn't be able to recapture the magical terror of his first megahit.

For one thing, "The Deep" doesn't have the strong emotional and narrative through-lines that "Jaws" did. There was a tension so great that you were ready to jump out of your seat with that film. Not so with this story about a pair of tourists who are scuba diving old wrecks off the coast of Bermuda and become entangled with a local treasure hunter and a Haitian drug lord who apparently is unaware that Bermuda is not Haiti. In "The Deep," there's not nearly as much tension, and what's there is more the "I wonder what's going to happen next" variety, rather than the "OMG" real thing.

Then again, Mr. Jaws made a bunch of appearances in Benchley's first book and film, and when he wasn't visible there was still that pulsing theme song of his. But a giant moray eel hardly gets any screen time at all in "The Deep." Maybe that's because he looks considerably less real than the mechanical shark used in the first film. But there's nothing more annoying to fans of creature features than to have the creature feel like a walk-on.

Tension was also created in "Jaws" by the individual characters themselves, each of whom you felt was holding something back--a secret, maybe, or a part of their character that makes them seem unpredictable. While Robert Shaw returns for a second Benchley go-round and Louis Gossett does the best he can as Haitian honcho Henri Cloche, neither character is written with as much depth, and both come closer to one-dimensional clichés that we've seen before. There's no scar-swapping episode in this film, and precious little character development. Worse, there are moments that feel as if they're going to lead to something, but ultimately don't.

Which brings us to the two stars, Nick Nolte and Jacqueline Bisset, who play a sexually and perhaps romantically (we can't tell with Nolte) involved couple on vacation. Though Nolte would elevate his game later in his career, here he doesn't bring anything to the role that's not in the script. Neither does Bisset. To be fair, she's not given as much of a chance, since she's there mostly for titillation. But there's a scene in which the couple is staying with treasure-expert Treece (Shaw) for protection and, following a dialogue exchange in which nothing much happens, David (Nolte) announces he's going to bed. Gail (Bisset), wearing a bathrobe, lingers. Possible sexual tension, right? Nope. Nothing there. Possible tension revealed between her and David? Nothing there either. More character development for either of them? Again, sorry. All that's here is more surface talk and a shared drink of rum that, throughout this film, looks dark as Guinness. As clichéd and unoriginal as the plot is, it's just enough to be reasonably entertaining. But beware of Seventies' pacing . . . and a "Calypso Disco" end-credit song, which tells you as much about this film as anything I could say.

"The Deep" gets off to a fast-enough start. After aerial shots of Bermuda we watch David and Gail diving the wreck and finding several things: what looks like an encrusted coin, and a tiny bottle still filled with something. Being rank amateurs, they're careless about keeping their find a secret, and before long they're paid a visit by Henri Cloche, who identifies himself as a "bottle collector." David is smart enough to know he's no such thing, but dumb enough to extend their little vacation because of this treasure hunt and not care a whole lot about who Cloche really is. He and Gail do a little research, which takes them to local treasure expert Treece. Any time you have two factions competing for treasure there's the obligatory turncoat or snitch, and that function is provided here by veteran character actor Eli Wallach as Adam Coffin--an underutilized role which seems akin to a rock star has-been reduced to playing county fairs. Coffin, in a kind of playful allusion to Moby-Dick, is the sole survivor of the shipwrecked Goliath, which was carrying munitions and morphine. That explains the ampoule, but what about the coin? Could this be the site of two shipwrecks? Or are we all still thinking about Bisset's wet t-shirt dive, which, when she surfaces, leaves little to the imagination. Bond girls have nothing on her.