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If Indiana Jones and James Bond could mate, Dirk Pitt would be their lovechild. He’s an attractive, All-American adventurer who defies authority, flaunts convention, has government connections, an impenetrable way with the ladies and a great brain in his head. As ruggedly played by Matthew McConaughey, Dirk is also incessantly charming, cocky, and a whole lot of fun to watch. Movies like “Sahara” are why popcorn was invented.
The adventure begins during the Civil War, when an ironclad ship disappears off the coast of Virginia. This sequence alone must have costs millions of dollars in stunts and effects, and is exactly what you expect in the opening of a movie with a $130 million budget.
By 2005, the whereabouts of the ship have become legend, the type of folklore and bed-time story that only a serious scholar would know enough intricate details about to put the vague clues together. This story, of course, has been extensively studied and obsessed-upon by none other than Dirk and his perfectly-casted sidekick, Al (Steve Zahn), who much like Indiana Jones keeps losing his hat.
In order to find the lost ship, which may or may not contain excessive gold riches, Dirk and Al commandeer a formal admiral/their financier’s boat to travel up the Niger River. How the boat went from the coast of Virginia to Africa makes as much sense as racing a sports car inside a house made of ice or searching for the Ark of the Covenant.
There’s a girl, too, and a smart and beautiful one at that. Dr. Eva Rojas (Penelope Cruz) is investigating the outbreak of a deadly virus for the World Health Organization, and soon finds herself in the middle of an African Civil War in which the evil General Kazim (Lennie James) is looking to wipe out his embittered opposition by releasing toxins into their water. The two stories converge all across Africa, with the good guys turning up at just the right time to make heroic rescues and daring escapes and the bad guys doing stupid things that you would never do unless you’re a villain in an action movie.
Their stupidity, however, often leads to the joy we find in a number of entertaining action sequences that throw reality out the window and ask only one simple question: How can this scene be as entertaining as possible? Fistfights, boat chases, dismantled airplanes sailing across the desert, solar power incineration and civil war canons are just a taste of the merriment in carnage that the movie offers.
The soundtrack further exudes the pulp aspects of the gleeful American hero: note the timely use of classic rock anthems such as Steppenwolf’s “Magic Carpet Ride” — it’s hard not to appreciate the unabashed exuberance of such moments. Topping it all off is Clint Mansell’s celebratory score, in which discerning ears will hear the high notes of the James Bond theme. In fact, the movie even ends in typical Bond fashion, with the hero and his girl on a beatific, isolated beach rejoicing in their conquest (if you think I just ruined it for you, then I feel sorry that you’ve never before seen an action movie).
“Sahara” is a flashy, splotchy, utterly-ridiculous and smile-inducing good time.
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