Movie Review: "Sahara"
Apr. 28th, 2005 10:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
matrixrefugee***1/2 out of *****
There's some films that just exist to be fun, just something you can kick back and watch and get a good laugh and some good excitement out of, and this is one of them. The plot is intricate, though not well-developed in a literary way: Think Indiana Jones meets James Bond (Even the film score sounded like something that belonged with a James Bond flick, only not quite as sophisticated sounding). Two guys (Matthew McConaughy, Steve Zahn) from a ship salvaging company follow the path of a lost Confederate ironclad ship that appears to have ended up in a dried-up river bed in the desert in Mali, their path intersecting with that of a female doctor (Penelope Cruz) with the World Health Organization, who is tracing the source of a mysterious plague, which a French billionaire industrialist (Lambert Wilson) seems to know more about than he's letting on...
Now, it's not a great film, and I can see why Clive Cussler, author of the novel it's based on, is more than a bit mad about its treatment: the script is weak but not horrible. It works, and that's what counts. Personally, I think Matthew McConaughy (sp?) is a mediocre actor who really didn't do justice to the part of Dirk Pitt, but hey, it ain't Shakespeare. Steve Zahn, who plays his buddy, was a lot more fun to watch and for that reason, practically steals the movie.
Pardon any incoherence: I had a hard time *not* moaning too audibly while I was watching certain *short* scenes. I didn't want the 15 year old girl in front of me to think I was wierd...
Open message to American film-makers:
If you cast Lambert Wilson in your film, Give Him More Screen Time, s'il vous plait!!!
Again, the sexy French beast gets all of fifteen minutes screen time... and the critic who called his character "a toned down version of the Merovingian, in the 'Matrix' series" is dead right. I've heard a rumor that our handsome older gent screen-tested for the part of James Bond: well, I cite this as evidence that he should play the next Bond villain.
God, he looks good in a khaki-colored linen shirt-jacket...
There's some films that just exist to be fun, just something you can kick back and watch and get a good laugh and some good excitement out of, and this is one of them. The plot is intricate, though not well-developed in a literary way: Think Indiana Jones meets James Bond (Even the film score sounded like something that belonged with a James Bond flick, only not quite as sophisticated sounding). Two guys (Matthew McConaughy, Steve Zahn) from a ship salvaging company follow the path of a lost Confederate ironclad ship that appears to have ended up in a dried-up river bed in the desert in Mali, their path intersecting with that of a female doctor (Penelope Cruz) with the World Health Organization, who is tracing the source of a mysterious plague, which a French billionaire industrialist (Lambert Wilson) seems to know more about than he's letting on...
Now, it's not a great film, and I can see why Clive Cussler, author of the novel it's based on, is more than a bit mad about its treatment: the script is weak but not horrible. It works, and that's what counts. Personally, I think Matthew McConaughy (sp?) is a mediocre actor who really didn't do justice to the part of Dirk Pitt, but hey, it ain't Shakespeare. Steve Zahn, who plays his buddy, was a lot more fun to watch and for that reason, practically steals the movie.
Pardon any incoherence: I had a hard time *not* moaning too audibly while I was watching certain *short* scenes. I didn't want the 15 year old girl in front of me to think I was wierd...
Open message to American film-makers:
If you cast Lambert Wilson in your film, Give Him More Screen Time, s'il vous plait!!!
Again, the sexy French beast gets all of fifteen minutes screen time... and the critic who called his character "a toned down version of the Merovingian, in the 'Matrix' series" is dead right. I've heard a rumor that our handsome older gent screen-tested for the part of James Bond: well, I cite this as evidence that he should play the next Bond villain.
God, he looks good in a khaki-colored linen shirt-jacket...
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no subject
Date: 2005-04-29 04:21 am (UTC)*drools at the very thought*
no subject
Date: 2005-05-01 05:32 am (UTC)But, I put in a request with the "capitrequest" community here on LJ.
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Date: 2005-05-02 01:00 am (UTC)SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!no subject
Date: 2005-05-02 01:27 am (UTC)