DVD recommendation: Sahara

Published in The Post-Star (G6)
7/27/06

Sahara (2005). Directed by Breck Eisner, based on the novel by Clive Cussler. Starring Matthew McConaughey, Steve Zahn, Penelope Cruz and William H. Macy. 127 minutes. Rated PG-13 (for action violence).

If the humidity has sapped your appetite for outdoor adventure lately, try curling up with your air conditioner and living vicariously through this hot action flick.

Squirt on some self-tanner and pretend you're in league with the gorgeous Matthew McConaughey and Penelope Cruz as they cavort around the desert in a desperate search for sunscreen.

No wait, that's not it -- they're searching for an American Civil War battleship that wandered improbably into the heart of Africa some 150 years earlier.

On second thought, it's probably more important to find the source of a deadly plague that's killing the people of Mali and threatening the entire global ecosystem.

But with a greedy, brutal warlord controlling much of the territory they need to explore, their quest takes on a dangerous edge.

It starts when plague hunter Eva Rojas (Cruz), a doctor with the World Health Organization, meets treasure hunters -- sorry, marine salvagers -- Dirk Pitt (McConaughey) and his goofy sidekicks Al (Steve Zahn) and Rudi (Rainn Wilson). They all end up in the same boat, in more ways than one.

Pitt's smug self-confidence is occasionally grating -- in terms of emotional depth, his character is a real desert -- but McConaughey's dimples make it hard to hold a grudge.

The film is based on a Clive Cussler novel with the type of plot that makes great beach reading, and director Breck Eisner seems to be striving for the same cheap-paperback feel. Plenty of things get blown up and there's the requisite good-guy fatality, but even the action scenes are playful.

Sure, it ends predictably, but there's something satisfying about plots with clear villains and heroes, and conflicts that wrap up neatly, sealed with a long-awaited kiss.

It's a fun diversion from a world where the plot is much more complicated.