A Scientist at the Movies Reviews by Greg Paris

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Title: Sahara

Date Viewed: 4/9/05

Details:

Matthew McConaughey (Pitt)

Steve Zahn (Giordino)

William H. Macy (Sandecker)

Rainn Wilson (Gunn)

Penelope Cruz

Delroy Lindo

Director: Breck Eisner

Score: 1/2

The Review: Clive Cussler has been writing about his hero Dirk Pitt for a very long time, but even given all the opportunity, I've never read any of his novels. I have, however, listened to many of them on audio tape -- a good way to while away long car trips -- but have never picked up Sahara. Its timeline (NUMA is still independent) makes it appear close to the beginning of the genre.

After all these years, this is the first translation of a Dirk Pitt book to the silver screen, and in my opinion, Mathew McConaughey is just the Pitt we've been waiting for: reasonably young, athletic, handsome, filled with himself and a lot of attitude. Most of the characters as interpreted -- Pitt, Giordano (Zahn), and Sandecker (Macy) -- are quite close to the images one gets from reading/listening to the novels; the only one who seemed a little off was Gund (Wilson), maybe because it's so close to the incept of the series.

Sahara combines all the hallmarks of a Dirk Pitt adventure: a hidden or secret artifact, some borderline (hence usually interesting) archaeology, skewed alternative interpretations of history, some underwater shenanigans, cliffhanger episodes of high adventure punctuated by attitude, a bit of humor, and a lot of derring-do. Given that most of Sahara happens in, well, an anonymous desert in western African, this is a bit more land-locked than the typical Pitt outing. Let's hope there are more to come, and that they'll be better -- or at least less aquatically challenged.

Not quite as good as National Treasure, but not bad.

(9-Apr-05)

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