Sahara: Critic Reviews

Insanely busy, exceedingly long, and sometimes endearingly preposterous.

It may not be Raiders of the Lost Ark, but Sahara, the screen adaptation of Clive Cussler's sprawling African adventure yarn, is a movie that keeps half a brain in its head while adopting the amused, cocky smirk of the Indiana Jones romps.

A testosterone-drenched escapade that misses because it lacks the tension to make it a thrill ride.

McConaughey's no Harrison Ford. And no one cracks the whip of originality.

A mediocrity wrapped inside a banality, toasted in a nice, fresh cliche.

Good-natured enough to entertain here and there, but that otherwise loses its way long before the characters complete their implausible quest.

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.

Eisner is not remotely up to the challenge. Spending millions on action scenes does not mean you get them right.

It's about good ol' boys on a rip-snorting adventure, and to that end, it succeeds.

A largely entertaining version of Clive Cussler's novel, with Matthew McConaughey delivering the goods as the adventurous Dirk Pitt.

McConaughey and his co-stars make the case that fun, however fleeting, is still fun.

I enjoyed this movie on its own dumb level, which must mean (I am forced to conclude) in my own dumb way.

How many leaps of logic do you allow an action movie before that thin strand of suspended disbelief snaps?

Spectacularly silly and perversely entertaining.

Getting the girl, finding the gold and saving the world from a plague are just afterthoughts here. The main objective is to have fun, and in that regard, Sahara accomplishes its mission handily.

The film is passably entertaining, in no small part because of Steve Zahn.

Despite the vast beauty of location settings in Morocco and Spain, the vast lack of chemistry between the two stars is appalling.

Eisner shows himself to be a solid helmer of complex and beautifully staged action sequences with a sure ear for character interplay and an exact eye for glorious widescreen framing with nods to images from Lawrence of Arabia.

The one-liners, mostly bland, are used so liberally that they water down the action.

Let's hope today's 10-year-old boys aren't too jaded by Matrix reruns to enjoy this for the good clean fun that it is.

Unlike Raiders of the Lost Ark, which this movie wants so desperately to be, there's nothing here to engage the brain along with the eyeballs.

This is a Mystery Science Theater 3000 special.

What it is is a big summer action movie that would have been hot stuff about 30 years ago but looks tired and worn today despite a perky, attractive cast that refuses to wilt in the desert sun.

There's no disguising the fact that Sahara has all the heft of marshmallow.

It's a little hard to have silly fun when you are constantly being reminded that Hotel Rwanda and similar stories have been playing out down the road.