For a while there, John

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For a while there, John Stockwell was the director who put soul and character into movies about young people involved in personal struggles and spiritual crises. He did this with crazy/beautiful, about a smart and responsible-minded East L.A. Hispanic teenager who falls for Kirsten Dunst's alcoholic, self-destructive rich girl from Pacific Palisades, and then with the under-rated Blue Crush, a beautifully-shot, nicely finessed North Shore surfing movie with Kate Bosworth. But now, suddenly, he's become the go-to guy for exotic outdoor thrillers starring hot-looking 20-somethings. He's directed Into the Blue (Sony, 9.30), a throwaway diving-for-treasure-and-finding-thrills movie with Jessica Alba, Paul Walker and Scott Caan. And he's now down in Brazil shooting Turistas, about "a group of young backpackers whose vacation turns sour when a bus accident leaves them marooned in a remote Brazilian jungle that holds an ominous secret." And what would that be...pygmy cannibals? The hotbod costars are Melissa George, Josh Duhamel, Olivia Wilde and Desmond Askew...terrific. What happened? Stockwell is not Brett Ratner -- he's Curtis Hanson. But perhaps all is not lost. Stockwell has written a screenplay about a high-stakes gambler for-hire called Chasing the Whale and a thing about a 12 year-old criminal mastermind called Artemis Fowl...cool. All I know is, he's capable of much more than stuff like Into the Friggin' Blue.

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