Quality filmmaking went into the Sahara but never returned.
The landscape of the action film genre is like a desert-dry, gritty films dominate the horizon and the vastness of the desolate waste can be overwhelming when one ends up stranded among the dunes. Then, shimmering in the distance is a
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beautiful, high-quality oasis amidst the dusty dreck. With one dip into the cooling pools of a starlet's eyes, one catch phrase from a gun-toting buddy cracking wise, you find relief from the usual parched fare.
Sahara
would like to be such an oasis, but like so many other explosion-laden films, ends up just another mirage.
Matthew McConaughey plays Dirk Pitt, the adventure hero created by author Clive Cussler last seen onscreen in 1980's
Raise the Titanic
. On the hunt for a Confederate ironclad ship missing since the Civil War, Pitt and his sidekick Al (Steve Zahn) find themselves caught up in an environmental conspiracy spearheaded by sophisticated African warlord Kazim (Lennie James) and pompous industrialist Massarde (Lambert Wilson). Also along for the ride is World Health Organization doctor Eva Rojas (Penelope Cruz), who is searching for answers regarding a mystery illness that threatens the whole world.
What unfolds is a by-the-book adventure that aspires to
Indiana Jones
-like heights but ends up hovering closer to Steven Seagal. McConaughey's Pitt is a good ol' boy gone wild, downing tequila shots as he searches for undersea treasures to the tune of a classic rock soundtrack. For some reason, though, the make-up department decided Pitt should look like Captain Jack Sparrow from 2003's
Pirates of the Caribbean
-early in the film, McConaughey appears greasy, golden and weighed down with mascara. Missing, though, is the Keith Richards swagger and the superior acting chops of Johnny Depp.
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It's safe to say, though, that moviegoers don't look to action films for originality-they look for
action. Sahara has a helicopter gunning for a car, a high-speed boat chase and even a Civil War battle, but all the bombast fizzles and the elaborate stunts leave one asking "why bother?"
Sahara
is filled with action without excitement and characters without life, a deadly combination when mixed with the faulty chemistry between McConaughey, Zahn and Cruz.
By the third act the hunt for the missing Confederate ship has become an incidental plot device like Hitchcock's McGuffin, and director Breck Eisner's (
Thoughtcrimes
) attempts to refer back to the film's premise just result in expository lulls between explosions.
Instead of a cool and quenching canteen,
Sahara
is simply another dune in the desert of the action genre; a glossy mirage packaged and pedaled to weary fans thirsty for sustenance.
