Sahara

Sahara is hitting a movie screen near you right now. The story of Dirk Pitt, a NUMA engineer/ modern day Indiana Jones searching the world for treasure and adventure. This movie based on the novel by Clive Cussler takes Pitt to West sub Saharan Africa on an adventure of plague, rogue dictatorship and a mysterious ironclad from the American civil war. The choice of lead role was ok although I notice he was also involved in the production. The choice of Penelope Cruz as a support role I thought was weak but I guess this is all part of the tweaking and artistic license the producers had granted themselves. The actor who plays the French villain is good and most people will note that he is also known as the Frenchman in the matrix series – possible typecasting here. Cussler fans and those who have read the book will find the movie a little puzzling and missing in parts. The book covers a confrontation with the Benin Navy, a UN female Egyptian general executive, a UN rescue team for a gold mine and a good twist in America history from the civil war period which you would have to read to believe. Maybe the producers felt they couldn’t get all of the story into the movie, fair enough but the part at the end where the gold is left with the Tuareg who in the book are the captors in the gold mine felt mushy and spoilt the movie. As the movie stands its ok if it was written independently of the book. But the book is always going to be looking over the shoulder of the movie and a comparison will always be desired. If there is going to be any more future movies of the Dirk Pitt vein .I hope that artistic license will not be any abused more otherwise it should be referred to as based on some concepts of a novel by Clive Cussler. This is one movie in which people might wish to read the book for more details as it is quite rich. If you do, don’t read the book of the film. Read the original made many years ago, and you will find possibly as I did that it is more exciting and can demonstrate some historical/ geographical detail that would too boring to learn about in school. This is what initially caught my eye in picking up some of Cusslers work. So for my klite movie rating and because I'm a fan of the authors work I would give this movie 6 out of 10 eagle eyed action men.

Music of the Moment : Beck – E-Pro