McConaughey fills Pitt's shoes

As their enemy's helicopter crashes to the ground and the advancing army of rebels surrenders its weapons, Sahara’s irrepressible hero Dirk Pitt (Matthew McConaughey) and his trusty sidekick Al Giordino (Steve Zahn) look at one another and utter in disbelief, “There’s no way that should have worked.” As I walked out of the surprisingly satisfying feature, I found myself thinking exactly the same thing. With its over-the-top doomsday scenarios and improbable plot twists, there’s no way this film should have worked but it does.

Sahara brings Dirk Pitt, one of popular literature's most beloved adventurers, to the big screen for the first time since the 1980 train wreck Raise the Titanic. The brainchild of novelist Clive Cussler, Pitt has garnered international fame as the strong arm of the fictional National Marine and Underwater Agency. Over the last 22 years, Pitt and his crew have starred in 18 different Cussler novels, finding untold treasures and saving the world along the way.

In Sahara, Pitt becomes entangled in a Malian civil war when he discovers, with the help of a beautiful World Health Organization doctor (Penelope Cruz), that the country is the source of chemical pollutants threatening the globe’s marine life.

The secret to the film's success, however, has little to do with its convoluted plot. Sahara unexpectedly shines because of the impeccable casting that brought McConaughey and Zahn to the film's principal roles. Fans of the Cussler novels no doubt understand the difficulty of finding an actor to fill the larger-than-life shoes of Dirk Pitt. It’s hard to imagine anyone pulling it off better than McConaughey does. Pitt’s good-natured swagger soars all the more, though, because of Zahn’s dry comedy in his role as sidekick, relieving tension with a wisecrack at just the right moment.

To be clear, Sahara will not be competing for any year-end awards, nor will it be every moviegoer’s cup of tea. Sahara packs a punch in much the same vein as True Lies or The Rock: chock full of explosions, gun fights and cheesy one-liners. The film offers clean-cut action adventure, sizzling with tension. As improbable as it may have been, Dirk and Al pulled it off this time.