'Sahara': Hot action, dry talk

"Sahara" offers tons of cheesy goodness, with camels, a love story treasure hunt and a James Bond-style end-of-the-world twist, all rolled into a winky, brainless romp. In short, this is big-budget product for those willing to suspend layer upon layer of disbelief and surrender to explosion-a-minute fun.

Paramount Pictures 'Sahara' 2 out of 5 stars Director: Breck Eisner Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Steve Zahn, Penelope Cruz Run time: 127 minutes Release date: April 8, 2005 Rating: PG-13 for action violence. See showtimes On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime Rate "Sahara"   Go see it   Make it a matinee   Wait to rent   Don't bother Voter Limit: Once per Hour View Poll Results

Based loosely on one of a series of Clive Cussler novels, "Sahara" centers on treasure hunter Dirk Pitt, played by former Austinite Matthew McConaughey.

The story begins with the loss of the fictional Confederate ironclad vessel Texas, which somehow ends up buried in a desert thousands of miles away filled with gold. As Pitt races about to find the treasure, a series of action setpieces fuel a plot involving an evil African warlord and an evil French industrialist, who threaten to accidentally poison the world's oceans with a preposterous waste dump in the middle of nowhere.

McConaughey is a smarmily likable hero who looks hunkalicious from every angle and always seems to be happily chewing gum, even when he isn't. Lacking the gravity of a prototypical action figure like Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones, McConaughey takes aim and blissfully hits an easier target: Dean Martin as Matt Helm, a fluffy, forgettable knockoff of James Bond.

Fortunately, McConaughey gets plenty of support from comedian Steve Zahn as quippy sidekick Al Giordino, whose droll plot summations and jokery mercifully keep the film from taking itself too seriously. His apt summation of their roles: "I'll find the bomb! You get the girl!"

Less successful is PenŽlope Cruz as a World Health Organization doctor seeking the source of an epidemic. Through a series of coincidences, she repeatedly bumps into Pitt until their adventures merge into one big Jeep chase. Though McConaughey and Cruz are a couple in real life, they lack chemistry on-screen, where their acting styles — hers understated and serene, his brash and swaggering — clash sparklessly.

Badly miscast is everyweakling William H. Macy as a stogie-chewing admiral called out of retirement to direct Pitt's adventuring. Macy, a talented actor, comes off here as too namby-pamby and spends the bulk of the movie being ignored at the helpless end of various long-distance phone calls. His part of the film could vanish altogether with little loss.

For a film that boasts four screenwriters and a lawsuit against it by Cussler over screenplay approval, "Sahara" holds together well, a tribute to director Breck Eisner (son of outgoing Disney CEO Michael Eisner), taking his first swing at a major motion picture after building a career in television. Eisner's eye for desert scenery and sense of pacing overcome sometimes jarring editing and an incomprehensible plot.

In the end, however, the plot is beside the point. This is about action, and the piling of action on action. One can almost hear the wheels of the producers' minds work to crank out a new franchise of Dirk Pitt adventures. This is about creating a new name in action. And at that, the film succeeds.