Sahara Reviews

Even if it was a flop, it was still curious to see this flick. Honestly, I don't think McConaughey is a bad actor, as a matter of fact, he is now making an interesting come-back (2011-2012) but I have to admit he made some poor choices during the last decade. Anyway, it is pretty obvious that they hoped so bad with this flick that they would get the new Indiana Jones with this... No way ! How dare they compare Matthew McConaughey with the Great Harrison Ford ?!? A sequel was planned but was canceled due to poor box office sales. Indeed, it was a huge (deserved) flop with a reported $100 million dollars loss. Even though there was a nice cast (Matthew McConaughey, Steve Zahn, Penélope Cruz, William H. Macy, Rainn Wilson, Delroy Lindo, Lambert Wilson, I thought the whole thing was really average and not really entertaining. I mean, I'm a huge fan of Indiana Jones, I love these kind of adventure flicks but there is a very difficult balance that you have to find between the action stuff, the humor, the romance and the cheesiness and they obviously they didn't manage to make it work here. To conclude, even though this project had some potential, the whole thing was rather disappointing and it is not really worth a look.

very exciting mindless action flick

Dirk Pitt and his long time friend and business partner Al are off on a grand adventure in Africa. After Dirk saves a young doctor working with the world health organization they part ways. As Dirk and Al begin search for a possible American Ironclad vessel that has sank they become aware that the possible plague the world health organization is treating has spread. As they dig deeper and deeper into the situation they learn that it may not be the plague at all just the poisoning of the local water supply.Dirk, Al and Eva must race to stop the poison from spreading before it reaches the Atlantic ocean and the worlds water supply becomes contaminated.

Sahara is a decent film based on the novel by Clive Cussler. The film is set up to be an intense mystery where anything is possible, yet as the film progresses it becomes increasingly predictable. The offbeat attempts to be humorous become redundant, and the outcome is another film trying to masterfully mix really suspenseful moments with key comedic timing. Sahara has its own blend of action, a bit over the top but at times believable only because you have come to terms with Dirk Pitt being a lot like Indiana Jones (without the unique style of Indiana Jones)

There were no real interesting plot devices other then Dirk and Al being able to seemingly get passed any object that stood in their way without any hesitation. There was no real standout as far as the cast was concerned. McConaughey played his usual character, a self confident man who ends up scoring the girl in the end. Steve Zhan tried so desperately to have great comedic timing, but it failed at times with the way the film was trying to portray the matter at hand as a potential threat to the very existence of humanity. It is kind of hard to listen to these characters mention how they have only a certain amount of time to save humanity and then watch as Steve Zahn overcompensates and makes a complete fool out of himself. Penelope Cruz did little, she could have easily have not been there and everything could have happened except for Dirk winning Eva's heart. There was so much crammed into this film, it all seems to become this mass pile of science and comedy and Dirk and Al being boring average non comedic versions of Indiana Jones.

Sahara is a decent movie, that tries so hard to have heart and for people to like it. I find it hard to take McConaughey seriously in any role he plays, maybe I am too hard on the guy or maybe he should try and step up his game, I just feel he was not the right man for the part and Steve Zahn could have made his character work but somewhere down the line the two of them combined for over 2 hours makes for a long drawn out overly annoying back and forth adventure dramedy. Sahara had it stuck to the science aspect of things could have been a little better, as it stands it is average and a film that will easily drop from your memory within two to three hours after viewing.