Sahara has lots of sound and fury trying to cover up for a hopelessly meandering story and a dull hero.
Sahara (2005)
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Reviews Counted:168
Fresh:64
Rotten:104
Average Rating:5.1/10
Consensus: A mindless adventure flick with a preposterous plot.
Theatrical Release:08-04-2005
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 traveling around... 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 traveling 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. [More]
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Penélope Cruz, Steve Zahn, Delroy Lindo
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Penélope Cruz, Steve Zahn, Delroy Lindo, William H. Macy, Rainn Wilson
Director: Breck Eisner
Director: Breck Eisner
Screenwriter: Thomas Dean Donnelly, Delroy Oppenheimer, John C. Richards, James V. Hart
Producer: Howard L. Baldwin, Mace Neufeld, Stephanie Austin, Karen Baldwin
Composer: Clint Mansell
Studio: Paramount Pictures
Reviews for Sahara
McConaughney plays the role of dashing adventurer Dirk Pitt as if he were a party-hardy frat boy who ventured out into the real world after all campus kegs were tapped dry.
Good-natured junk that amuses while it's onscreen, and evaporates almost immediately afterward.
...an action adventure film, complete with implausible situations, and perfectly timed rescues and escapes. Who cares? It’s still fun, exciting and thoroughly entertaining
..a rollicking, wild adventure in which a very buff Matthew McConaughey, and his able sidekick, Steve Zahn, have more fun than any movie pair since Mel Gibson and Danny Glover
...will leave a parched sensation in one’s dry throat...a recycled buddy-buddy vehicle that’s about as welcoming as hugging a cactus tree
While it doesn't rewrite the genre, it finds a way to deliver with style and humor everything adventure fans want.
Sahara is many things, but it is not a movie. It is the skull-splitting cacophony of 21 producers and four screenwriters (that we know about, anyway) standing in the same room shouting into their cell phones.
Otherwise dismissive reviews of Sahara have been forgiving it on the grounds that it’s entertaining. Allow me to counter that opinion: No, it isn’t.
It ain't art, and it's dumber than I'd like, but I don't imagine you were expecting Kieslowski.
Pitt seems to get by entirely on dumb ideas and reckless luck. In the end, he's an action hero in name only.
It drove me crazy. It made National Treasure look like a documentary.
It would have worked better with a funnier and more believable script.
...the overriding lesson here is that if we don't go looking to Matthew McConaughey for gravitas, we'll probably have a good time.
[A]s delightful a bit of... hokum as we've seen in some time. You don't take it seriously for a minute... [Y]ou get a big bag of popcorn, sit back, and enjoy.
Has enough humor and adventure that I’m almost willing to overlook the preposterous plot
Someone had the brilliant idea to treat Sahara as a Hope and Crosby “Road” picture pasted onto a James Bond/Indiana Jones plot.
Mindless, but fun and entertaining. It’s sort of James Bondish without the ridiculous special effects. I enjoyed it, mainly because of McConaughey and Zahn.
The mindless Sahara is smart enough to keep the action and wisecracks at a fevered clip.
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