Sahara (* * *)

I decided to talk about Sahara for my first blog post, mostly because it was the most recent movie I have seen so it's fresh in my mind. In the future I will post about new movies I have seen, as well as old movies.

Sahara was a pretty good movie, it wasn't great but it was fun to watch. The film seemed to me that it would have fit in during the summer, it's that type of movie. The pacing was good and there were few if any slow or boring parts. There is lots of explosions and over the top action sequences. If your thinking it has a Da Vinci Code type of plot, well forget it. Pretty much if you check your brain at the door you will probably enjoy this movie. There are a few minor twists and unexpected events, but all in all it's fairly predictable.

As far as the acting goes Steve Zahn was very funny and played a central role, so in-between and during the action sequences you could get a laugh in here and there. He is probably destined to be the "funny sidekick" for all of his movies, but he does a great job with it. Matthew McConaughey did a good job as the hero in this movie, he looks the part of an ex Navy Seal and did good with the fight sequences. I haven't really seen him play many hero type roles in the past, in fact I can't even think of one right now. So I think it was a good change for him and I wouldn't mind seeing more of that in the future. Penelope Cruz was a believable World Health Organization worker investigating an African epidemic. I think she played the role well, she didn't have to do much in the film except to look pretty, but all in all she did a pretty good job. William H. Macy has a small part in the movie as an ex Navy Admiral out digging up buried treasure from the bottom of the ocean. I usually like him as an actor and he didn't disappoint with this film, too bad he wasn't in more of it.

The film has some great landscape shots and some fun sets and locations. Visually the effects and stunts were good and the cinematography is standard for this type of film.

The Bottom Line... I give this movie 3 stars because I did enjoy it, the movie was funny and fun to watch. There were few slow or boring scenes and the love story sub plot was, well a sub plot and not too over the top. The acting was good and the characters were believable. The music was a lot of fun and it helped set the tone for the movie. The story was interesting enough to keep me watching but not really as deep as the movie was advertised to be. Enough twists to keep you guessing, a little bit. Yes there were some scenes that made me roll my eyes, but that was to be expected and I didn't really have high hopes for this film. If you just want to go sit back in the theater and watch a fun movie, this movie is for you.