Sahara: Movie, DVD, Blu-ray disc Review (2005)

8/24/2007 Posted by Admin

“Sahara”
Directed by Breck Eisner; written by Thomas Dean Donnelly, Joshua Oppenheimer, John C. Richards and James V. Hart, 130 minutes, rated PG-13.

(Originally published April 4, 2005)

In the blistering heat of “Sahara,” anything is possible--romance, strife, plague, the end of civilization, even the idea that a Civil War-era Confederate ship might be buried deep beneath African sands.

As directed by Michael Eisner’s son, Breck, in his feature film debut, what quickly becomes clear in “Sahara” is that Eisner may have left his screenwriters out in the sun too long. The film is sometimes so over the top, it appears as if their imaginations, warped by the heat, were taxed into hallucinations.

But who cares, right? With the action-adventure genre, pretty much anything is possible and bombast can be a plus. One only needs to look at the Indiana Jones movies to see how well these films can be done when done well.

For “Sahara,” the problem is that we have the Indiana Jones movies to compare it to--not to mention a few others, such as “King Solomon’s Mines”--and I’m afraid there’s no comparison. As good natured and occasionally fun as “Sahara” is, this movie version of Clive Cussler’s popular novel is little more than a likable poseur.

In the film, Matthew McConaughey is Cussler’s famous renegade hero, Dirk Pitt, who is in Africa with his comic-relief buddy, Al (Steve Zahn), searching for the aforementioned ship when their search crisscrosses with another.

Indeed, also in Africa is the earnest Eva Rojas (Penelope Cruz), a humorless World Health Organization doctor who fears that Africa is on the brink of another plague, one that could reach New York within six months and then, after some unfortunate side effects, wipe out all life as we know it.

The looming threat of mass death is usually good for these sorts of movies--they give them a purpose--and in “Sahara,” it does whip up some interest. The water system in Africa is becoming spoiled, with the plague gradually leaching down the Niger River to the Atlantic Ocean, where it will ignite the moment it hits the salt water and the oxygen within that water. When that happens, let’s just say that we’ll cease to happen.

But who cares, right? What matters here is what always matters in these films--is it fun? Are the characters worth rooting for? Are the action scenes peppered with inventive stunts you haven’t seen before and are delighted to see now?

The answers are mixed. In spite of its long running time and shaky plot points, sometimes “Sahara” is fun, particularly at the end, when Eisner embraces the absurdity of what he has created and cuts loose.

McConaughey and Zahn have chemistry, but forget Cruz; she looks a bit dumbstruck by it all, as if she showed up for the wrong movie—one to be taken seriously. As for the action, too much of it audiences have seen before, with several scenes pulled straight out of the Jones’ movies. Some might argue that those scenes are Eisner tipping his hat to Spielberg, but if that’s the case, others will argue that he never should have tossed that hat into the ring.

Grade: C+

(Available on Blu-ray disc)