Sahara 1.5/5
Marine diver and treasure hunt dreamer, Dirk Pitt, finds himself saving the life of a beautiful Dr. on a beach. She recuperates on board a large salvage vessel of an organization that partners with foreign governments to recover ship wrecks and their musem artificats.
The Dr. was investigating a mysterious possible plague on behalf of the World Health Organization (WHO) while Pitt comes across a very rare gold coin from a Civil War ironclad battleship. The ship was rumoured to have crossed the Atlantic and ended up in a river in Africa. The ship also may contain a lot of gold.
Matthew McConaughey is still lacking in screen prescence here and Penelope Cruz, is hopelessly dull. The good guys get shot at a lot but never really get hurt even when they take on lots of bad guys. During the fun, harmless scenes, we get a soundtack of US classic rock, while during the more serious chase scenes, we hear James Bond-like themes.
Unfortunately, almost every scene is totally farfetched. When they stumble across something important, it's way too convenient to hold your imagination. Travel across the vast Sahara takes place in no time at all. There's almost no intrigue or suspense.
Not something I would buy on DVD or see again. Based on the novel of the same name by Clive Cussler. Sahara is not in the same league as the Indiana Jones movies but if you are looking for an easy to digest Hollywood adventure movie, this is the mush they're serving up this week.
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Article comments
1 - Mark Jochim
Watching the commercials on TV, I didn't realize this movie was based on the Clive Cussler novel. I've enjoyed reading his books since my mom turned me onto "Raise the Titanic!" in 1976 and always thought they would make great movies.
Too bad a director hasn't yet done justice to any of them -- the movie of "Raise the Titanic!" starring Jason Robards was horrendous but has become something of a cult classic (still not available on DVD).
From your review of this movie, it sounds as if history has been repeated. I'll still go to the movie (or, more likely, wait for the DVD) but I'm not holding my breath that it'll be great.
Thanks for the heads up!
2 - Triniman
Low expectations are good to have for this movie, for sure!