Sahara (2005)

Decent watch, might watch again, but can't recommend unless you're running out of things to watch or are an action archaeology fan.

This was a weird attempt created a 2005 version of Indiana Jones, or, since this is in Africa, Alex Quartermaine with Matthew McConaughey, of all people. I'm not aware of Matthew McConaughey or Steve Zahn being big action stars, but they surprisingly manage to handle their own, even if it isn't always believeable. Rainn Wilson and Penelope Cruz get in on the action as well....if that helps.

The premise is a little interesting: they're looking for a U.S. Confederate boat in Africa. Because it's not interesting enough on it's own, Penelope Cruz is a doctor trying to stop a plague coming from a war-torn country. It all feels a like ridiculously improbable things happening in a world that is far too realistic rather than a world created of fiction that houses an incredible story.

The movie is heavy with plot armor, despite any cleverness the characters have.

It's fine to watch, but there has to be something else that you can watch that is likely going to be better.

Words like "Literary work" and "Clive Cussler" really shouldn't be in the same sentence.

Hey...chill...I love Clive Cussler, I honestly do. In fact I'll put him in the same league as Elmore Leonard and Louis L'Amour and I will put them in the same league as Dumas and Doyle.

They all write pulp fiction, adventure, crime, mystery, horror, whatever, they all fall under the title "pulp" and I can admit that I eat them whole, without swallowing...

...and without the need to call them "Literary" in an effort to save face.

I have the academic degrees somewhere in a box, the intellectual prowess, and a library with enough classics and heady works of history and philosophy to be able to openly display writers like Chris Claremont, Marv Wolfman, and Timothy Zane to not have to call his work "Literature." I will however call it "Adventure" I will call it "Fun" and what should be most important to any writer or film maker..."Entertaining." It doesn't have to follow the book. Jackie Brown was a far cry from Rum punch and they were both a lot of fun to watch and read.

So Sahara isn't like the novel.

It is an Action-Adventure-Comedy. That means it is everything that pulp should be, it is everything that movies should be...

In fact it is the kind of film that the critics would have loved in the Golden Age of Hollywood.