Show aa Sahara Not All Too Dry Dive Amanda Chamberlain 1 Arts Entertainment Generally speaking or observing rather action films never far from the basic stray kills guy bad bad- guy gets gu y gets gets- girl girl- plenty of ex pI genre archetype And as I l have recently witnessed the most recent newborn of the adventure action-adventure family family family ly Sahara adheres almost too perfectly to that statement Think Indiana Jones minus the classic movie status heroic mysticism and insurmountable leading leading leading lead lead- ing man but plus a contemporary plot with believable believable believable able characters When rugged innovative marine ex-marine and current underwater-artifact underwater Dirk Pitt played by Mathew McConaughey and his laid-back laid amusing childhood buddy and partner Steve Zahn set out outto outto outto to Africa to find a lost long-lost Civil War ironclad battleship a power-driven power oppressive king Zahid and toxic waste-poisoned waste water will do anything to stop them in their humble pursuit Accompanied by bya a World Health Organization doctor Eva Rojas Penelope Cruz who is on a mission to find the source of a mysterious and malicious disease killing dozens of Africans native to the Zahid-dictated Zahid Mali the trio finds themselves in daily machine gun showdowns and kidnappings while unraveling the mysteries of the sweeping infamous Sahara Desert While slightly predictable and calculations slightly slight slight- ly off Sahara held the attention of the audience gracefully By gracefully I mean with humor that you cant can't believe you are laughing at because it is isso isso isso so plain with gruesome infested disease-infested bodies bodie and by the sudden striking changes in the path of their humanitarian adventure The acting proved to be one of grade- grade A A characteristics rh It Tr UT was CI rf to tn se e HU g u. u McConaughey as a witty innovative adventurer which with such ease that one would think he had done it before I assure you he hasn't The usually up stuck-up Cruz acted a different role and seamlessly wise transition-wise as well of a caring to not-afraid-to-get-dirty work-comes-first work WHO doctor which eased her branded mark of maintenance high-maintenance camera seducing diva Zahn provided the in-house in comic relief with his next guy-next-door every day random comments like when the river battle consumed their yacht and almost their lives he looked uI up at with concerned brows and said I lost another hat That was my favorite The crux of the cast however was the two sidelined characters characters characters char char- William H. H Macys Macy's character as Admiral of the salvage salvage sal sal- vage ship and his meek innocent humorous data- data analyst Both sparse and unique characters pitched in their two cents more like two lines that added a giggle here and anda a chuckle there but more importantly adding an overall air of amusement and originality to the film While on the subject of originality each scene in Sahara is different One moment McConaughey and Zahn will be behaving behaving having conversing with Mali rebels and the next they will 7 i p w. 7 sI t L is 4 r I k r q L r 7 f ZAHN MCCONAUGHEY SAHARA TAT A be handcuffed to a truck bed dragging it across the windy desert The cutter cookie-cutter violence doesn't differ from any other action film but the scenes inherently do which means good news for fans of the genre Director Breck Eisner made sure the scenery was authentic tic which proved to be yet another strong point of the film Even if a viewer found the plot a little boring and that the movie dragged a bit he or she could still sit back and enjoy the scenery With lush rivers chaotic African marketplaces and sand-made sand desert cities the background could easily be one of the best parts of the movie And with no sex nudity and barely any brusque language one could enjoy it shame shame- lessly For not being an adventure action-adventure film fan I am pleased to announce for sake that I 1 found sitting through the sand-filled sand littered gun-littered adventure to be relatively painless But now with that said lets let's wait a little while before releasing another studded star-studded action flick ok One can only handle so many escapes from endless gunfire at one time L j- j i |