I can think of only three demographics that "The Treasure Of Jamaica Reef" might possibly appeal to:1) Cheryl Ladd completists. It is indeed one of her earliest screen roles, and she already has some of the qualities she brought to her most famous role, Kris Munroe: she is cute, adventurous and infectiously enthusiastic. However, she is off screen for large sections of this movie.2) Fanatics of extended underwater sequences. They sure will get their fill here.3) Insomniacs. This movie will solve their persistent problem! Other than that, "Treasure Of Jamaica Reef" is a curio at best. Maybe the "Evil In The Deep" version (with sharks added!) is an improvement, but I doubt it. *1/2 out of 4.

Detective Boyd is called to the scene of a bloody homicide tied to the disappearance of an ancient and cursed treasure map. So, as the narrative explains, with imminent long service leave, the amateur scuba diver enlists the skills of a group of likeminded boffins to search for the elusive and dangerous cargo. As you'd expect, other more sinister interests also embark on the hunt, looking to capitalize on any discoveries the team makes. But all is jeopardized by the presence of several sharks, fiercely protective of the tainted booty.Ostensibly a treasure hunting movie, there's much emphasis placed on the planning and execution of the hunt, moreover than effective action. The characters perform brain surgery on the task, which would be ideal if one were watching a salvage operation documentary as opposed to a feature film. In point of fact, while a large, menacing shark features prominently on the dust cover to the DVD, you'll only see two actual attacks in the movie. Fortunately, the second of these is worth the wait, for those who enjoy shark-related dismemberments. The affable Boyd is now well below the pinnacle of his Hollywood star, but appears no less enthusiastic about the dull pace and lack of momentum. Future Charlie's Angels starlet Cheryl Ladd is bright and bubbly, but can provide little in the way of depth to the laboured proceedings.So with one cadaver and a solitary severed limb off a bad guy chalked up to the sharks, it's not the feeding frenzy you might have expected from the dust cover. Perhaps there is an as yet undiscovered longer print in which the sharks feature more prominently, such is the 104 minutes running time published on some dust covers. And then again, perhaps be thankful there isn't.

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.

In the scenes under water, this movie came across as one of those bad films we had to watch in school--poor audio, home-movie quality video, bad new age music, boring narration. But the plant and animal life in the sea was amazing, and quite well photographed. And when the "treasure" was changed from buried gold to coffins on a sunken ship, I thought the photography of the wreck was also good.Once we got out of the water, the underwater scenes seemed like a masterpiece. I was starting to wonder (since I arrived late) whether this was a college or independent project where someone followed around a group of friends. No, there were villains, and no documentary would have had scenes with only the villains. It was a pleasure to see some potential for conflict, because at least these people could act, unlike our heroes.Cheryl Ladd had beautiful long blonde hair and looked good in a bikini, though she usually wore more, which was a shame. If her character was supposed to be intelligent or have special skills, I couldn't tell. For the ladies, Darby Hinton usually wore only a swimsuit.I will say that the quality of the music improved at times, because it sometimes included fine classical piano in the style of Ferrante and Teicher or Roger Williams. Even the alien noises that usually dominated might be considered quality by the coffee house poetry crowd.And the narration also seemed to improve. The only good writing seemed to be the narrator's, bordering on poetic at times.I do need to single out one scene. In a James Bond movie, this type of situation is a staple and often spellbinding. Here, it was poorly executed, poorly edited, and quite confusing. I finally realized what was going on, but in a good movie it would be obvious.This could have been quite a fascinating movie. Instead, it probably should have stayed buried.