hoernkeem Review of Sahara

Sahara (2005)

Sahara review (2005, Breck Eisner) Farfetched but rollicking guilty pleasure adventure tale

[7/10 · 11 February 2021]

Sahara (2005, Breck Eisner) When 'Sahara' was released it wasn't very well received by critics nor did it make much money at the box office. Maybe it is a bit of a guilty pleasure, but I enjoyed this film quite a bit. I am not quite sure how intelligent the plot is. You can probably poke a bunch of holes in it without trying too hard, but I still found it a quite entertaining flight of fancy if you flex your suspension of disbelief a bit. I think the film is very well cast. Matthew McConaughey has great charisma as treasure hunter Dirk Pitt made famous in numerous novels by Clive Cussler, and while Steve Zahn doesn't quite meet book specs of sidekick Al Giordino he works really well as a Guy Friday and comic relief. Penelope Cruz, William H. Macy and Delroy Lindo among others round out a decently impressive cast. If you know anything about Dirk Pitt adventure novels they all follow the same basic template which is combining some historical treasure mystery with a modern day terrorist/espionage intrigue plot, and both usually come to common climax. Here the historical mystery revolves around a lost confederate ironclad ship which was reported to have somehow made it all the way to Africa. This has been sort of a passion of Pitt's for a while and gets revisited whenever they are in Africa. Along with that some sort of mysterious plague style illness is spiking in western Africa causing the W.H.O. in the form of Penelope Cruz to investigate. She manages to run afoul of local warlords and her and Pitt get wrapped up in each other's quests as he searches for a long lost ghost ship in a desert and she searches for the source of a deadly plague. While the plot is outlandish it seems clear that everyone on screen is enjoying the hell out of themselves and having a good time producing a fairly simple adventure/treasure hunt sort of film. I really enjoyed everyone in their roles. I thought the plot had plenty of action, tension and humor and it never really dragged. It was up tempo and if you just let yourself go you can enjoy this as a fun popcorn action adventure flick. I really wish this would have caught on as there are a bunch of Pitt novels to mine material from for continued adventures, and typically big budget adventure films done well can lead to good reviews and hefty box office receipts. For whatever reason though 'Sahara' did not capture public attention or imagination and wound up being a box office dud. To further complicate the matter Cussler battled the production company in court over the adaptation which along with the cruddy box office ostensibly destroyed any chance of further Dirk Pitt adventures which is a shame because I thought the core cast here was very good with wonderful chemistry and this is a world that certainly could have been built upon. Also we just don't get very many blockbuster style adventure films in the Indiana Jones mold and I greatly enjoy what we do get even if that enjoyment is in the guilty pleasure realm. Even if you can criticize the film's plot and science and such to no end the film is clearly well made. So while I am sure 'Sahara' has plenty of negative reviews and plenty of reasons to pick it apart I found this film a lot of fun and very enjoyable and I wish it had done well enough to spawn sequels. Eric's Grade: B-