Despite yawns and reports of dead calm from past viewers, Luc Besson’s Le Grand Bleu (The Big Blue) is a film with legs, and as long as they’re touching water it works.

The film precedes Besson’s damaged Pygmalion La Femme Nikita and is his first English-language feature. It stars Leon’s Jean Reno and Jean-Marc Barr as dueling free divers Enzo Majorca (Molinari in the film) and Jacques Mayol, true-to-life champions presented here in a fictionalized tale. The story connects the pair briefly in childhood before moving years ahead to more serious and dramatic dives. It culminates in their competition at the world free-diving championships in Sicily.

Besson turned to filmmaking as a young man after a diving accident redirected his original plan. His love for the ocean blooms here, in its tempo and color and unthinkable darkness below, it’s a wonder that’s rare outside of the documentary. But the film’s one-breath dive scenes play just that way, immediate and dangerous, albeit a-la-Besson. It’s works in Bleu’s favor. If the film loses ground, it’s away from the men in their element and the sport that drives them into the depths on a weighted sled. It has to happen of course. As we’ll learn, there’s more to Mayol than a set of great lungs and, unlike Enzo, his motives go beyond simple recognition. Important sure, but in the end it’s hard not to root for what Bleu does best.

Extras : The Big Blue Blu-Ray (wow, what a mouthful!) looks and sounds terrific. Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and unraveling in beautiful 1080p, the MPEG-4 AVC-ed effort hasn’t looked this good since, well, the cinema! It really does look rather sublime. In addition, the DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack makes love to your home theatre system. Brilliant.

You get the theatrical and director’s cut editions of the film plus an insightful making-of.