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Amazon.co.uk Review
It took more than 25 years for another Clive Cussler novel to come to the screen after the financial and critical disaster of Raise the Titanic. Based on Cussler's oddly landlocked adventure, Sahara finds the author's hero, Dirk Pitt (Matthew McConaughey)--a sort of all-American, high seas variation of James Bond--in Africa looking for a Confederate ironclad ship that impossibly might have ended up there. Soon he and his faithful sidekick Al Giordino (Steve Zahn) are lost in another adventure, discovering a deadly contaminate being tracked by a beautiful doctor (Penelope Cruz). The results are checkered: there's no one outstanding sequence, but the action is enjoyably varied, while the thrills are mild yet not bombastic or gratuitous. The cast are all adept in their roles, yet the only one who sparkles is the scene-stealing Zahn, cast against type; McConaughey, who also produced, knows he might be starting a franchise character and plays it safe. He's never as dangerous as Cussler's hero is on the page (except in his introduction), and in fact, the whole movie plays towards comedy, infused by a soundtrack of 70s FM radio monsters. Cussler fanatics may not like this lighter fare, especially with the archeological portion (a Cussler strong point) not fully embraced, but with a very, very likable cast and colorful settings, Sahara is a kindler, gentler action film that has all the elements in place for a better, more memorable franchise if anyone cares to attempt it. --Doug Thomas, Amazon.com
Product Description
Paramount Pictures, Region 2; Region 3 2005 124 mins
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Indiana Jones meets Bond in leave your brain at home fun!,
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This review is from: Sahara [DVD] (DVD)
I don't mind a bit of Cussler now and again. He writes entertaining if undemanding page-turners, that are perfect fare for a long flight or lounging around on a beach.
I was therefore curious to see how this Cussler yarn transferred to the big screen. Well, Sahara is certainly undemanding - the goodies and boo-hiss baddies are all very clearly demarcated early on. It has to be said though that Matthew McConaughey as our hero Dirk Pitt, bears only a passing resemblance to Cussler's creation. In the novels, Pitt comes over as far more mature and with a hint of military or secret agent about him. Let's face it, Pitt is James Bond-lite. The designer-stubbled, longish haired medallion man that McConaughey gives us, simply didn't feel like Pitt and will probably annoy the Cussler purists no end! No matter! Let's discuss the plot in some detail now. Pitt saves the world from environmental disaster, discovers a hoard of Civil War gold and gets the girl. Errrm ... that's about it! Doesn't sound like much does it? And yet, the movie still kinda works, if you're in the right frame of mind. Just go with the flow and you will have to acknowledge that Sahara is beautifully filmed, amidst spectacular landscapes and with expertly selected dynamic camera angles. The high-speed boat pursuit and the action atop the solar tower, although somewhat derivative, were undeniably spectacular. The improbability of some of the stunts is such that they would probably make Indiana Jones gulp with disbelief! What the hell though - this has no pretensions to be oscar material and the 110 minutes flew past in a blur of sumptuous colours, action and amiable camaraderie between McConaughey and his wisecracking sidekick Steve Zahn. Great rocking soundtrack too! Oh and Ms Cruz is certainly rather decorative! If you don't expect too much, you may well be pleasantly surprised.
14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Almost, but not entirely, unlike the book,
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This review is from: Sahara [DVD] (DVD)
Over the years I've read all the Dirk Pitt novels, they can be a little slow to start, sometimes a little too explanatory - but they deliver the goods in the action department and I find them gripping and enjoyable.Unfortunately Sahara is a very good book - one of the best, but the film although entertaining, leaves me wishing it had more. Several elements have been rewritten, a lot has been ignored. The casting is a way better effort than Raise the Titanic (which I vainly hope will be remade sometime to do that soundtrack justice!), Matthew McConaughey and Steve Zahn get close to the Lancaster and Cravatt style partnership of Pitt and Giordino. Action wise, it is fun, yes you've seen it all before, but it does not let you down. I will happily buy this DVD, but I hope the other books that the studio has contracted to adapt can capture the book's atmosphere better. I certainly hope the relationship with Cussler himself can be repaired. I do believe that, treated correctly these stories rival the Bond movie franchise, and I look forward to the next one.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Watchable but forgettable,
By
This review is from: Sahara [DVD] (DVD)
The producers of Sahara might have done well to have considered how well the previous attempt to bring one of Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt novels to the screen went before pouring a hundred or so million dollars into it even before Cussler launched an ill-fated lawsuit against the end product. While it's not as dull as Raise the Titanic, it didn't exactly set the box-office on fire let alone kickstart a new Indiana Jones-style franchise about the maritime treasure hunter that the studio so desperately wanted. It's not that hard to figure out why. Matthew "Naked Bongos" McConaughey and Penelope Cruz make for an unsurprisingly bland pair of leads, not helped by a plodding script that, after a terrific prologue in the American Civil War, pretty much traipses along with only a single boat chase to hold your attention until an action-packed last half hour finally wakes the film up. The outlandish premise - McConaughey's hunting a Civil War ironclad ship in the Sahara desert while Cruz is tracking the source of a new disease that threatens to poison the continent and beyond - works rather better than it should and the film's other MaGuffin, a solar-powered toxic waste disposal plant, must have had the Bond people kicking themselves that they didn't think of it first, but not well enough to make up for the lack of any chemical reactions among the cast. Perfectly watchable but also perfectly forgettable stuff.
It's worth noting that Paramounts region 2 PAL DVD drops all of the extras from the US disc (two commentaries, featurettes and deleted scenes) and contains only the film itself.
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