Sahara

A tongue-in-cheek action-adventure starring Matthew McConaughey as a treasure-hunter following rumors about a missing Civil War ironclad halfway around the world to the North African desert, Sahara is a wild ride. Along the way our hero becomes sidetracked by a willful, beautiful doctor (Penelope Cruz) who enlists his help to track the industrial-waste source of an illness spreading through a war-torn country. The picture's enjoyably over-the-top action sequences have an excess of boys-with-toys spirit, but the circumstances of these episodes are often ludicrous, ignoring even the most basic kind of common sense--which is tolerable in small doses, but eventually Sahara's meager justifications for suspension of disbelief are overrun by exponential absurdity, culminating in an all-too-easy finale that might have been amusing and exciting if it weren't so inescapably preposterous. McConaughey and sidekick Steve Zahn hold together some loose ends with scruffy, dashing, cheeky performances, but whether that's enough to qualify this as a popcorn-munching guilty pleasure is highly subjective. Optional. [Note: DVD extras include two audio commentaries (one with director Breck Eisner; the other with Eisner and co-star McConaughey), a “Visualizing Sahara” storyboard featurette (20 min.), the "making-of" featurette “Across the Sands of Sahara” (15 min.), a cast and crew wrap film (10 min.), four deleted scenes with optional commentary (5 min.), and trailers. Bottom line: a solid extras package for a so-so film.] (R. Blackwelder)