Sahara

In a Nutshell: Fun flick, but nothing spectacular. Great banter between the two male leads. Definitely worth seeing, though no blockbuster effects that absolutely require the theater, if you'd like to wait until DVD. "They did a Panama." :-p

Quick Plot: A professional treasure hunter, I mean, deep sea discoverer, finds clues to his pet project in Africa. Can he really find a long lost Confederate ironside ship in the middle of the dessert, especially without getting killed?

In Detail: I really rather liked this movie, quite a bit more so that DH. Well, I mean, two hours of clean-cut muscles-cut Matthew McConaughey, how bad can it be, right? LOL It was just loads of fun. That's not to say that it wasn't missing something. First off, there was too much luck and not enough skill/solving involved. As this movie has been compared to National Treasure, I will say that NT has the upper hand here. I missed that aspect of it. Second, there was absolutely NO explanation as to how the boat would have gotten there in the first place. I don't think that is an unreasonable question. And lastly, the whole "put the woman in peril so she can be rescued" subplot just seemed tacked on, as opposed to integrated in. They tried, it just wasn't very smooth. Not sure if the book does better or not. However, I felt when watching National Treasure that it was missing.... something. Something I was never able to put my finger on. But whatever it was that NT was missing, Sahara had it. Something about the chemistry and the camaraderie and the banter that was just incredibly enthralling. If you could have combined the two films, you would have had just about the *perfect* summer popcorn flick, ranking right up there with Indiana Jones. Sahara doesn't quite make it, though with some improvements, the next film in the franchise could (oh come now, you know they'll do it, if it makes a single nickle of profit). Looking forward to the next installment.

Will I Buy It? I'd like to, for a reasonable price (under $15,
I'd say). Not sure if DH will agree, though.