The Unseen Movie Review

Sahara

“In the Civil War, a battleship carrying a secret shipment of gold vanished without a trace.” And with that premise is launched yet another attempt to repeat the success of the Indiana Jones movies. Yep, this is a treasure-hunting adventure yarn set in inhospitable and uncivilised lands, where a ruggedly masculine yet likeable hero performs various feats of derring-do straight out of those “Boy’s Own” annuals of the 1950s, while making wisecracks and chatting up any attractive females he happens across. Classic action movie material, in other words.

Based on a novel by pulp action writer Clive Cussler – effectively a low-rent Tom Clancy – Sahara has all the hallmarks of being just the first film in a potentially very successful new action franchise. Considering that Cussler’s Dirk Pitt novels – of which there are around a dozen to date – have sold over 100 million copies worldwide, there’s certainly a market for it. Add to that the fact that – since the failure of the Mummy franchise, the ongoing failure to revive Indiana Jones, the decline of Bruce Willis’ Die Hard series, and the end of Piers Brosnan’s run as James Bond – Hollywood has been looking for a new old-fashioned action hero, this could be the start of a beautiful friendship.

Much as with earlier films of this type, the hero must have sidekicks. Here, the beautiful love interest – a part taken by Rachel Weisz in The Mummy as well as innumerable Bond girls – is amply filled by the somewhat easy on the eye Penelope Cruz. The zany male sidekick – played jointly by Denholm Elliott and Sean Connery in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and a combination of John Hannah and Kevin J. O’Connor in The Mummy – is taken up by Indy film favourite Steve Zahn, probably best known to date for his turn as the hapless stoner ex-con Glenn in Steven Soderberg’s Out of Sight.

However, this kind of film always hinges on the lead. Harrison Ford was perfect and set the mould as Indiana Jones. Brendan Fraser did a good job of replicating Ford’s success in The Mummy – though botched it in the sequel. More recently, Angelina Jolie looked good but utterly lacked the required charisma as Lara Croft in the Tomb Raider flicks.

Here, they’ve opted for Matthew McConnaughey – easy on the eye, certainly, but with little in his back catalogue to suggest he’s action movie lead material beyond his turn in the low budget and underrated man versus dragon sci-fi flick, Reign of Fire. He’s one of those actors who have been around for ages, yet who don’t seem ever to have done anything memorable. Given the fact that Cussler’s first choice for the role was apparently X-Men’s Hugh Jackman, his casting could seem worrying.

Can McConnaughey pull it off? Well… Yes, actually. With the help of Zahn’s comedy antics and Cruz’s smouldering sexiness, plus the utterly ridiculous yet very enjoyable mystic conspiracy plot, in adventurer Dirk Pitt McConnaughey could finally have found himself a role that will earn him wider recognition than just occupying poster space on teenage girls’ bedroom walls. For the rest of us, it’s just possible we may have found a suitable heir to Indiana Jones’ undisputed title of the king of the action heroes.

posted by Nosemonkey @ 12:00 AM