'Sahara' delivers an eyeful — and ripping good fun

As a rule, I despise any movie moment where my applause, laughter or tears are not so much subtly elicited as they are slapped out of me at gunpoint. This is often through the use of faux inspiration, the manipulative deaths of puppies and grandmas, or gags so old that Moses probably heard them while crossing the desert and said "Man, that joke's old!"

Paramount Pictures 'Sahara' The verdict: 'Sahara' is a thing that'll make you go "Whoo!" For real. 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

There are many things to recommend the wonderfully big, fun Sahara, not the least of them being Matthew McConaughey's pectoral region. But the hook was hearing myself clap, laugh and squeal "Whoo!" before realizing I was doing it.

That's right — spontaneous emotion, caused by a fast, improbable adventure flick that clearly embraces its inner 12-year-old boy. It's not art. But it's almost perfect.

Sahara is the swashbuckly saga of Dirk Pitt, the star of four decades worth of books by author Clive Cussler. Pitt is an adventure junkie locating nautical treasure for the National Underwater and Marine Agency or NUMA, and McConaughey plays him with a little boy's gleam in his eye, Sinbad the Sailor's chiseled torso, a wanderer's soul and a maritime library's massive knowledge of historical information.

All of these qualities, of course, would realistically make him a bad boyfriend, in the same vein as the nameless sailor immortalized by The Looking Glass in the classic Brandy. You know, his life, his love and his lady is the sea, or the desert, or some far-off, dangerous place with sharks, ruthless warlords and no way to call you on your birthday or ever meet your mother.

Anyway, the dashing Dirk is in Africa, trying to track down a famous, lost Confederate ship. A gold Confederate coin has been found in the vicinity, and Dirk convinces his boss (William H. Macy) that it must have come from this ship. So he and requisite funny sidekick Al (Steve Zahn) set out to uncover the ship, even though they'll have to cross the aforementioned warlords and people who'll be trying to kill them.

Before he gets near the ship, Dirk does find a fetching World Health Organization doctor named Eva Rojas (Penelope Cruz). Rojas and her boss (Glynn Turman) are investigating a plague that is killing workers who have been in Mali. The plague is apparently the result of (cue the meaningful music) a dastardly plot, and Eva is nearly murdered by the plotters.

Luckily, a plucky adventurer with ridiculous abs shows up just in time and saves the day.

You know it had to happen, just as you know that somebody's gonna get kidnapped, somebody marginally important is gonna die, and that there's gonna be a whole lot of running, ducking and hanging off moving vehicles.

The great part is that all of this feels fun, not forced. Director Breck Eisner has a style that a colleague of mine once told me was essential for Westerns — he treats the land as a character, shooting every curve of luscious coastline, every glorious rise of desert sand, and every cloud in the impossible blue African sky in big, lush detail.

Eisner gives the adventure genre a needed shot of joy, by adhering to the Indiana Jones model — exotic lands, dashing heroes, funny lines, improbable scrapes and escapes and a little bit of romance to move us along to the next great escape.

Like the Brendan Fraser version of The Mummy, Sahara doesn't ask you to believe this stuff could happen in real life. It just wants you to believe it for the two hours you're in that seat. And you do.

To his credit, Eisner avoids the uncomfortable racial stereotypes that even The Mummy couldn't get over — that all ethnic native groups are either savages or childlike Stepin Fetchit comic relief that quickly become lunch for the monster. There are plenty of brown-skinned bad guys, like evil General Kazim (Lennie James), but also some good guys like a mysterious CIA agent played by Delroy Lindo and his pretty bald head.

But it would be nice to one day see a movie about a black American or — get this — a black African adventurer who explores Africa for cool relics and gets to be the star among people who look like him, rather than the sidekick. I'm just saying.

The casting adds to Sahara's "Whoo!" factor. McConaughey may have at last found a setting for his larger-than-life gorgeousness. Cruz, who I have never been impressed with, makes a believable doctor, and gets her share of physical derring-do. Go, girl.

But special kudos go to Steve Zahn, who usually plays guys who save their adventurous spirit for smoking pot and calling everybody "Man." But as funny sidekick Al, he's also aces with firearms, explosives and other things that go "Boom!"

And he seems to have gained quite a believable adventure dude physique. He's the best surprise in Sahara, a movie whose fun was a surprise in itself.

The Flick Chick's Bottom Line: Sahara is a thing that'll make you go "Whoo!" For real.