What's it about? Sahara is yet another faux-Indiana Jones movie which attempts to fill the gap where Harrison Ford left off much like the National Treasure and Mummy films. Based on the book of the same name by Clive Cussler, it stars Matthew McConaughey as an adventurer on the trail of an ironclad battleship containing precious cargo. Cue globetrotting, a goofy sidekick, a love interest, a handful of villains after the same thing, action set pieces and a stream of cinematic cliches piled ignominiously on top of one another. Why was it doomed to fail? For one thing, Sahara was a few years too early to make the most of the McConnaissance. A lawsuit from original author Cussler, mocking reviews upon its release and a budget which escalated well beyond expectations all converged to make Sahara the opening movie in a franchise which wasn't to be. The film's producer remarked of Cussler's actions: "It is the height of arrogance for Cussler to take $10 million to make a movie and then torpedo the franchise," although in reality there's more than enough blame to go around, not least McConaughey's $150,000 make-up tab, which was larger than Penelope Cruz's...
