Claudia Puig
Sahara is an adventure story that plays out as dryly predictable as the desert's endless dunes.
It's as if director Breck Eisner (son of Disney chief Michael) realized two-thirds through that more excitement was needed and then ladled it on thick. The buddy action-adventure morphs into a disaster flick, and, just for kicks, both good and bad guys detonate as many explosions as might have gone off during a week of the Iraq war.
Reason and logic are blown away as well. Characters traverse the Sahara on foot for days and never seem to need a drop of water as they pull off amazing feats. They also happen upon a working pay phone after stumbling through miles of barren terrain.
But at least this movie has the sense to cast the goofy Steve Zahn, who utters the movie's only funny lines. A plan to release poison into the water supply of western Africa is exposed and threatens the Atlantic. Treasure-hunter/ scientist Matthew McConaughey -- a swashbuckling good ol' boy -- asks Zahn: "What would you do if you were exposed as the world's worst polluter?" Zahn cracks: "Run for president?"
Penelope Cruz, in one of her least convincing performances, plays a World Health Organization doctor who believes she has discovered a deadly plague in Mali, when actually a nefarious local warlord is poisoning the water supply. Cruz is supposed to be feisty and dedicated, but mostly she looks wide-eyed and out of place. To convince cynics of her medical skill and moxie, she dons thick glasses and gamely fires a gun when the opportunity arises.
McConaughey and Zahn are explorers bent on finding a sunken Civil War battleship, which they believe drifted over to Africa. (Don't ask.) Childhood pals, they now work for a former Navy admiral, played by William H. Macy, who brings some sorely needed intelligence to the proceedings. When Cruz's life is threatened and the potential ecological disaster exposed, the roguish pair spring into hero mode.
Sahara is a testosterone-drenched escapade that misses because it lacks the tension to make it a thrill ride. Never do you doubt that key characters will survive various perils. The film clocks in at under two hours, but the last 20 minutes feel like 40. In the interminable climax, Zahn whines: "I'm so tired of being shot at." Not nearly as tired as his audience.
?? Copyright 2005 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.
