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Sahara [2005]


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Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review

It took more than 25 years for another Clive Cussler novel to come to the screen after the financial and critical disaster of Raise the Titanic. Based on Cussler's oddly landlocked adventure, Sahara finds the author's hero, Dirk Pitt (Matthew McConaughey)--a sort of all-American, high seas variation of James Bond--in Africa looking for a Confederate ironclad ship that impossibly might have ended up there. Soon he and his faithful sidekick Al Giordino (Steve Zahn) are lost in another adventure, discovering a deadly contaminate being tracked by a beautiful doctor (Penelope Cruz). The results are checkered: there's no one outstanding sequence, but the action is enjoyably varied, while the thrills are mild yet not bombastic or gratuitous. The cast are all adept in their roles, yet the only one who sparkles is the scene-stealing Zahn, cast against type; McConaughey, who also produced, knows he might be starting a franchise character and plays it safe. He's never as dangerous as Cussler's hero is on the page (except in his introduction), and in fact, the whole movie plays towards comedy, infused by a soundtrack of 70s FM radio monsters. Cussler fanatics may not like this lighter fare, especially with the archeological portion (a Cussler strong point) not fully embraced, but with a very, very likable cast and colorful settings, Sahara is a kindler, gentler action film that has all the elements in place for a better, more memorable franchise if anyone cares to attempt it. --Doug Thomas, Amazon.com

Editorial
Synopsis

Dirk (Matthew McConaughey) and Al (Steve Zahn) have been friends since kindergarten, having also gone through college and the Navy together. The two now work for a former admiral travelling around the world and salvaging treasures from the sea with the National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA). In his spare time, Dirk is obsessed with the 150-year-old mystery of the Texas, an Ironclad battleship that reportedly disappeared from Richmond, Virginia during a Civil War battle and turned up in Africa. When a Confederate coin--allegedly one of only five minted--surfaces in Mali, Dirk and Al plan to travel there from Lagos, Nigeria on the admiral's yacht to investigate. Meanwhile, in Lagos, Dirk meets Eva (Penelope Cruz), a doctor for the World Health Organization (WHO) who believes that there is a plague building in Mali. Since the WHO is unable to find another way into the war-torn country, Dirk and Al give Eva and her colleague a lift up the river. Once in Mali, Dirk, Al, and Eva quickly find themselves embroiled in trouble as she pursues the source of the disease. Meanwhile, Dirk and Al search for the Texas. Based on a novel by Clive Cussler, SAHARA is a rollicking thrill ride through exotic locales, including everything from high-speed boat chases to helicopter pursuits to jeeps racing through the desert to camel rides. A warlord and a greedy French businessman prove to be formidable villains for the trio. McConaughey fits the bill as gentleman and adventurer Dirk, while Zahn holds his own as likeable sidekick Al. Cruz is feisty as independent Eva. Director Breck Eisner's theatrical feature film debut also features William H. Macy as the admiral.

Watchable but forgettable
Review date: 2008-07-25 Rating: 6 out of 10

The producers of Sahara might have done well to have considered how well the previous attempt to bring one of Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt novels to the screen went before pouring a hundred or so million dollars into it even before Cussler launched an ill-fated lawsuit against the end product. While it's not as dull as Raise the Titanic, it didn't exactly set the box-office on fire let alone kickstart a new Indiana Jones-style franchise about the maritime treasure hunter that the studio so desperately wanted. It's not that hard to figure out why. Matthew "Naked Bongos" McConaughey and Penelope Cruz make for an unsurprisingly bland pair of leads, not helped by a plodding script that, after a terrific prologue in the American Civil War, pretty much traipses along with only a single boat chase to hold your attention until an action-packed last half hour finally wakes the film up. The outlandish premise - McConaughey's hunting a Civil War ironclad ship in the Sahara desert while Cruz is tracking the source of a new disease that threatens to poison the continent and beyond - works rather better than it should and the film's other MaGuffin, a solar-powered toxic waste disposal plant, must have had the Bond people kicking themselves that they didn't think of it first, but not well enough to make up for the lack of any chemical reactions among the cast. Perfectly watchable but also perfectly forgettable stuff.

It's worth noting that Paramounts region 2 PAL DVD drops all of the extras from the US disc (two commen taries, featurettes and deleted scenes) and contains only the film itself.

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Reviews


Expensive Stupid Tripe (and I am being kind)
Review date: 2008-06-06 Rating: 2 out of 10

And I thought "The Covenant" was bad... This is yet another of those hugely annoying American films where every character that is not American is either (a) expendable, or (b) stupid AND expendable. Every single American in this movie is savvy, smart, sharp witted and has huge grasp of current affairs and World knowledge in general - which of course the rest of us on the planet know is about as far from the truth as you can possibly get.
This film is deafeningly loud, has enormous explosions, a plot line developed by lobotomised marmosets and more designer stubble than you can shake a stick at. It is a dreadful waste of an actor of the skill of William H Macy, but everyone else is at or about their correct level.
If you have a choice between watching this film or having root canal work done on your teeth, think hard. You have a choice. At least with root canal work you get pain killers.
This film is DREADFUL.

Great Movie
Review date: 2008-05-13 Rating: 2 out of 10

I caught Sahara [2005] on TV recently and it is a great movie if you are mentally challenged or suffering from a tremendous hang-over. Matthew McConaughey is an all-American James Bond-Indiana Jones type adventurer in this mindless "movie", and Cruz plays a Doctor/Scientist.

Sahara is a poor movie; it's the type of movie that exists in that strange world where critics almost universally pan it, yet it still manages to pack 'em in at the box office.

Despite adding nothing new to an already crowded genre, it's already earned its money back in the States and topped the charts. It seems the people love it and it has been tailor-made to appeal to the teenage girl crowd.

Any action? Surely Cruz and McConaughey don't discuss science the entire time? There's a boat chase with numerous explosions, overturned trucks, endless rounds of ammunition, and a camel race straight from the classic movie 'Ishtar'. Nothing, however, could prepare us for the concluding scene where a military helicopter is taken out by a rusty 140-year-old cannon. I also liked what they called a "Panama," where a yacht is packed with explosives and let loose to, uh, explode. Me like fire. I've stopped speaking in full sentences now cos this movie has that brain-dead quality to it.



Very poor
Review date: 2008-04-01 Rating: 4 out of 10

The action sequences are good. The plot is terribly poor. The acting is embarassing. Only if you really (REALLY!) have nothing else to do.

(PS: don't use Indiana Jones on the cover - this isn't even any close to it)

A Classic Example
Review date: 2007-12-22 Rating: 2 out of 10

When a producer pitches a film to a studio to get it financed he has about 30 seconds to enagage the executive or his project is dead in the water (you can see it being done properly by Richard E Grant's character in a totally brilliant film called "The Player"). Twenty minutes into this film and none of the characters have been developed and no one in the audience has a clue what's going on - worst still, no one in the audience cares either. Despite its multi-million dollar budgets and even after turning down 99% of the scripts it receives, the studios are desperate for the one thing that neither love nor money can seemingly buy - a good script - a story with real characters that engage the audience from the opening scene. By this assessment Sahara fails horribly on all counts...

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Matthew McConaughey
Steve Zahn
Penelope Cruz

Creators:
Matthew McConaughey (Primary Contributor)
Penelope Cruz (Primary Contributor)

Director(s):

Recording label: Paramount Home Entertainment
Manufacturer: Paramount Home Entertainment
EAN: 5014437872036
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: Anamorphic, Dubbed, PAL,
Release date: 2005-08-22
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Audience rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 119 minutes
Theatrical release date: 2005
Language: English (Subtitled)
Language: Italian (Subtitled)
Language: Spanish (Subtitled)
Language: English (Original Language)
Language: Italian (Dubbed)
Language: Spanish (Dubbed)

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