I love adventure and action movies as much as the next person. Sahara is not the best I've seen, but there are worse out there. Clive Cussler's source material is a wonderful piece of work, and due to have more succinct writing and a more engaging story-the story here has alterations- is superior. But the film is a solid and underrated film in its own right.

Plus I usually don't like comparing movies to their source material, to me they're different mediums and should be judged on their own merits..

I often have heard and seen comparisons with the Indianna Jones movies, and that Sahara rips them off. I love those movies, well the first three anyway(fourth was mediocre) but to me while Sahara does have that vibe and like the Indy movies are adventure/action films they are all different and recommendable films in their own way.

Sahara mayn't be perfect, while the script is mostly witty and the story exciting and engaging, there can be some disbelief in the dialogue and the film meanders at the end both in credibility and pacing.

However, Sahara is visually stunning. I have seen many visually beautiful films, but with the majestic landscapes/settings and sparkling cinematography that has an epic sweep to it it is one of the more visually stunning films I've seen recently.

The soundtrack is also very well done, fitting with both the tone and genre and memorable. The action is every bit as exciting as the story and well choreographed and the direction is solid. I thought the acting was fine on the most part, Matthew McConaughey has just the right charisma for the role, and Penelope Cruz is beautiful and suitably foxy.

Steve Zahn has some great humorous lines and scenes and thankfully doesn't grate, William H. Macy is perfect here and likewise with a very enjoyable Lennie James. Delroy Lindo on the other hand is rather underused.

Overall, solid, fun and underrated. Not perfect but better than some have said, at least in my view. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Matthew McConaughey has developed into one of the bigger action/adventure stars over the last decade and its with films like Sahara that he's gotten that reputation. Thirty years ago I could have seen Clint Eastwood doing a film like this, sixty years ago it could have been John Wayne.

Sahara finds McConaughey as a fellow more used to working on sea than on land, he's a salvage diver and one of the best. He's on the trail of one of those wildly improbable tales that you would find in pulp fiction adventure stories and the films made from them back in the day. A Merrimac type ironclad, captained by a friend of President Jefferson Davis sailed away with a whole treasure of Confederate gold just before the Civil War ended. Improbable because those ships were never meant for long ocean voyages, yet the legend has it that it made its way to Africa and sailed up the Niger River and is now somewhere in Mali, one of Africa's poorest developing countries.

That's what he and sidekick Steve Zahn are after, but their paths cross that of Doctor Penelope Cruz with the World Health Organization seeking the cause of some strange new plague. The source is in the same neighborhood, so the two become allies and a bit more than that.

Both also run afoul the local warlord Lennie James. Though he would no doubt love to find the treasure McConaughey is seeking, in Africa the medical supplies and knowledge of Cruz is far more valuable than gold. It's a commodity with a huge price tag.

Sahara bears a close resemblance to the Indiana Jones films for both spectacle and pace. But the film also deals with some serious issues about the poorest of the earth's continents in the same vein as Blood Diamond. It's the kind of old fashioned story that Hollywood used to film on the studio back lots. No back lots here though, Sahara is filmed right on the Sahara, albeit in the far more stable country of Morocco.

If you like the old fashioned kind of action/adventure film, Sahara is definitely one for you.

Having recently read and enjoyed the Clive Cussler novel upon which this Hollywood blockbuster is based, I have to say that I'm entirely disappointed by a loose and lightweight adaptation which cuts out the majority of the good stuff. If I hadn't read the book beforehand I wouldn't have enjoyed it much either. Matthew McConaughey stars as Dirk Pitt, an adventurer who heads off into Mali in search of a legendary ship, only to run afoul of corrupt businessman and warmongering generals. It's made in a light, jokey way, with action scenes borrowing from Bond and Indiana Jones and poor direction throughout which robs the movie of style and enjoyable. Steve Zahn's character has been reduced to moronic comic relief while Penelope Cruz is there for eye candy alone. A far cry from the tough, gritty book, which is much more worth your time.