Review: Sahara Truly Dry

Author: LogtarPublished: Sep 04, 2005 at 9:00 pm 3 comments

Matthew McConaughey plays Dirk Pitt, yeah, and the movie stinks just as much as the main character's name. To say that the script stretches the boundaries of reality is being kind. Scene after scene you keep on wishing that the movie comes back to reality or that it goes into full fledge science fiction mode. I'm sure that people who have any actual knowledge of Africa, sunken ship retrieval, and/or physics had a worse time than I did trying to make sense of this mess.

I don’t even know where to start washing this pile of dirty laundry. It's all pretty much one big, heaping mess. Oh wait; I see a big brown stain; the fight scenes. I am an action movie fanatic; not because of explosions but because of gun fights and hand to hand combat. I am not sure how much of an action hero McConaughey wanted to be after this movie, but next time he should just let a double do the work instead of chopping the scene into a mess of choreographed punches. Do you remember the old Batman live-action series where the "POW", and "KABOOM" appeared in fight scenes? That's what I thought of while watching the action sequences in Sahara.

There were a lot of good actors in the movie; sadly none of them had an opportunity to actually act. It was more like they all wanted a vacation so they took on a project that, I am guessing, was filmed in Morocco. Steve Zahn saves the movie with his comedic timing and gets the MVP award for actually doing some work. I don’t even want to start talking about Penelope Cruz, who wasn't very convincing as a doctor. I'm not even sure why she was cast. She didn't bring anything to the character. In scenes requiring her to appear compassionate, she seemed more disgusted and ready to get off the set into her air conditioned trailer.

Delroy Lindo shows up and I wonder if the movie is now going to pick up some speed. Maybe he will get the movie in gear and we'll finally see some action. Sadly, he has about 2.5 scenes in the movie and it's almost like a lifesaving float made out of toilet paper that dissolves as you try to hang onto it.

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Article Author: Logtar

An opinionated 30 year old Colombian that became an American, lived in Chicago for 10 years, Michigan for 3, and now lives in Overpriced Park, Kansas. Computer Programmer that also does translation and interpretation. …

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  • 1 - Webbie

    Sep 04, 2005 at 9:42 pm

    "..about Penelope Cruz, who wasn't very convincing as a doctor. I'm not even sure why she was cast..."

    Eye candy. Nothing more.

  • 2 - Brent McKee

    Sep 05, 2005 at 1:13 am

    You've obviously never read a Dirk Pitt novel (by Clive Cussler). Suffice it to say that the description sound relatively close to something he might have written.

  • 3 - Triniman

    Sep 05, 2005 at 3:56 pm

    Surely, one of the worst films of the year.

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