I Think We Need to Pull a Panama

What better place to open a movie titled Sahara then in an Ironclad off the Virginian shore during the Civil War? Apparently our hero of the movie, Dirk Pitt played by bongo enthusiast Matthew McConaughey, thinks that the same Ironclad sailed the Atlantic and wound up in Africa. And that isn’t the most far fetched part of the movie because Penelope Cruz plays a doctor from the World Health Organization. And to remind you that her character is smart, they routinely put her in glasses in hopes of fooling you.

Rounding out the cast is go to goofy sidekick Steve Zahn as Pitt’s goofy sidekick that he’s known since high school. William H. Macy makes a couple appearances as Pitt’s boss. And Dwight Schrute himself steps out of The Office to add some comic relief when Zahn’s goofball antics just aren’t enough.

The film itself plays like as if Indiana Jones was a present day oceanographer. But instead of those darn dirty Nazi, Dirk has to save his love interest of the moment from African Warlords who is poisoning his enemies and sees the WHO as a threat. But it takes a while for the movie to move along and seems as they deleted some important aspects from the movie, which is based on a popular series of books on Pitt, due to time limits. Some of the action scenes are cool including an odd wind-surfing sequence. But really not cool enough to completely save Sahara.

Sahara gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.