Come non-anticipate _Sahara

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Based on a Clive Cussler novel. I should have known.

Searching for a treasure on the Nile, Dirk Pitt thwarts the attempted assassination of a beautiful U.N. scientist investigating a disease that is driving thousands of North Africans into madness, cannibalism, and death. The suspected cause of the raging epidemic is vast, unprecedented pollution that threatens to extinguish all life in the world's seas. Racing to save the world from environmental catastrophe, Pitt and his team, equipped with an extraordinary, state-of-the-art yacht, run a gantlet between a billionaire industrialist and a bloodthirsty West African tyrant. In the scorching desert, Pitt finds a gold mine manned by slaves and uncovers the truth behind two enduring mysteries -- the fate of a Civil War ironclad and its secret connection with Lincoln's assassination, and the last flight of a long-lost female pilot....Now, amidst the blazing, shifting sands of the Sahara, Dirk Pitt will make a desperate stand -- in a battle the world cannot afford to lose!

And what a manly man Matt M. makes! (I like how it makes Steve Zahn appear to be Penelope Cruz and vice versa.)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 28 March 2005 22:35 (twenty-one years ago)

this movie would be classic if all the actors died while filming it.

― kyle (akmonday), Monday, 28 March 2005 22:37 (twenty-one years ago)

God, that looks like a nightmare. But I liked Hildalgo, so who knows?

― andy --, Monday, 28 March 2005 22:39 (twenty-one years ago)

will this have a horse in it?

― whatever (nordicskilla), Monday, 28 March 2005 22:42 (twenty-one years ago)

I want a state-of-the-art yacht.

― Remy (x Jeremy), Monday, 28 March 2005 23:08 (twenty-one years ago)

"will this have a horse in it?"

Penelope.

― andy --, Monday, 28 March 2005 23:15 (twenty-one years ago)

that is a DUCK

― kyle (akmonday), Monday, 28 March 2005 23:18 (twenty-one years ago)

Steve Zahn went to Harvard!

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 28 March 2005 23:42 (twenty-one years ago)

AND he's from Minnesota!

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 28 March 2005 23:43 (twenty-one years ago)

So you're saying Steve Zahn is the white you, except not cool.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 28 March 2005 23:44 (twenty-one years ago)

not possible

― who's asking? (nordicskilla), Monday, 28 March 2005 23:46 (twenty-one years ago)

it's no Tiptoes, that's all i know. things explode in the sand though, so i'm there. it surely lacks giovanni ribisi with a bad dye-job and a bad german accent. with that on your "things exploding in the sand" plate you cannot fail.

― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 28 March 2005 23:50 (twenty-one years ago)

a beautiful U.N. scientist investigating a disease that is driving thousands of North Africans into madness, cannibalism, and death

*insert various topical jokes here*

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 28 March 2005 23:52 (twenty-one years ago)

i anticipate this movie!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 03:31 (twenty-one years ago)

But you don't have to pay for it!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 03:32 (twenty-one years ago)

most likely no!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 03:37 (twenty-one years ago)

i heard this as a book on tape! my mom played it during a long car trip to florida one summer.

i don't remember anything about it, however.

― latebloomer: AKA Sir Teddy Ruxpin, Former Scientologist (latebloomer), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 03:44 (twenty-one years ago)

I saw the trailer for this last year. My husband killed himself laughing, already being familiar with the novel. Me, I just though it looked dumb. And that Matthew McConaughey is hot.

― VegemiteGrrl (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 03:47 (twenty-one years ago)

i really like McConaughey in action roles and i wish he could land better ones

― jones (actual), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 03:55 (twenty-one years ago)

I like him in jeans. I don't care for his movies. (Ooh except Dazed + Confused...)

― VegemiteGrrl (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 03:56 (twenty-one years ago)

this s trikes me as insanely racist--like 19th century h ridder haggard neo colonial not really thinking about racist--how the fuck are things made like this anymore.

― anthony, Tuesday, 29 March 2005 04:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Slocki saw it so he has to talk about it. ;-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 7 April 2005 03:01 (twenty-one years ago)

I heard about this movie for the first time five minutes ago when I saw a commercial for it, and I was like "I have to see this NOW" but I enjoy movies like The Rundown so my taste is bad.

― Dan I. (Dan I.), Thursday, 7 April 2005 03:37 (twenty-one years ago)

Explosions! Main character named Dirk Pitt! I honestly don't have a single clue what the plot is about (haven't read the rest of this thread) but it features a helicopter getting hit by a missile = YES.

― Dan I. (Dan I.), Thursday, 7 April 2005 03:40 (twenty-one years ago)

The main characters wear matching pants on the poster! Steve Zahn looks like he really really regrets being in this movie already.

― Dan I. (Dan I.), Thursday, 7 April 2005 03:43 (twenty-one years ago)

the little clip i saw on the daily show looked cool!

― ryan (ryan), Thursday, 7 April 2005 03:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Anthony's right, this film really does look all H Rider Haggard-ish. It looks rubbish. My bf wants to see it. He's menko, but he likes Indiana Jones films so whatever.

― Trayce (trayce), Thursday, 7 April 2005 03:48 (twenty-one years ago)

I read this book on a family vacation to Michigan when I was 14. All I remember is that at the beginning some man gets shot in the crotch and keeps screaming and talking for a really long time. I just can't believe that they are bothering to make a movie out of it.

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Thursday, 7 April 2005 12:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Directed by Michael Eisner's son.

― n/a (Nick A.), Thursday, 7 April 2005 13:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Film I have been moist excited to see this year. All the leads are smiling on the poster. How bad can it be?

― Pete (Pete), Thursday, 7 April 2005 13:57 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm sorry, but it looks like a cross between Outbreak and Raiders of the Lost DaVinci Code (not even that, but that movie about the map on the back of the Declaration of Independence - what was that called?) i.e. THE BEST MOVIE EVER!!!!

I'm excited. But then again, what do I know? I enjoyed Van Helsing. :-|

― We Are All Full Of Kate (kate), Thursday, 7 April 2005 14:01 (twenty-one years ago)

I didn't think Matthew M. had the potential to make people moist excited, but I could be wrong.

x-post

― Leon WK (Ex Leon), Thursday, 7 April 2005 14:02 (twenty-one years ago)

NATIONAL TREASURE, Kate!

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 7 April 2005 14:03 (twenty-one years ago)

(xpost, It doesn't take much for our Ptee.)

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 7 April 2005 14:03 (twenty-one years ago)

National Treasure, how could I forget? I still don't think that movie had quite enough Freemasons.

― We Are All Full Of Kate (kate), Thursday, 7 April 2005 14:05 (twenty-one years ago)

It should be recalled that the Ptee is a known liar.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 7 April 2005 14:09 (twenty-one years ago)

Ptee lies about many things but moistness is not one of them. Sadly.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 7 April 2005 14:13 (twenty-one years ago)

The pub encounters I recall were not moist per se, though they were arguably sodden.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 7 April 2005 14:16 (twenty-one years ago)

not a missile a CANNON!! (don't mistake this for something you should see)

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 7 April 2005 14:20 (twenty-one years ago)

anyway this movie was very dumbass. it was maybe one of the worst-plotted movies i've ever seen (or okay, one of the worst-plotted movies of the last few years, let's say). i assume... i guess... that the novel makes sense, but it seems like a whole bunch of crucial plot bridges were left out of the script or on the cutting-room floor, as they say. (example: mcconaughey's primary motivation the whole movie is to find this mysterious legendary lost civil war ironclad ship of death that somehow ended up in the middle of an african desert*, so you assume that at some point you'll find out WHY the ship is there, WHAT its significance is to mcconaughey, WHY it has this deadly legend surrounding it... but no).

also the editing was VERY poor, which made the action scenes very hard to watch. the characters were very silly. actually i don't think i've ever seen a movie with so little conflict between any of the characters. everyone gets along really well, there's no "this way!" "no THIS way!" bickering in the desert between our buddies and the hot doctor. even the bad guys, it seems, kinda meant well (they still have to die though)

*also apparently the sahara was a lush land full of "big rivers" as little as 140 years ago. go fig!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 7 April 2005 14:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh. I thought it was about the way Morocco still subjugates Western Sahaara under its colonial jackboot.

Moistness drying.

― Pete (Pete), Thursday, 7 April 2005 15:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Clive Cussler has talked nothing but shit about this movie for the longest time.. to the point where the studio sued him for breaching his contract. I love Hollywood.

― Actor Sizemore fails drug test with fake penis (jingleberries), Thursday, 7 April 2005 16:11 (twenty-one years ago)

my wife had free passes to it and we didn't even bother going

― kyle (akmonday), Thursday, 7 April 2005 16:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Hahah, if even CUSSLER doesn't like it then you know it's trash...

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 7 April 2005 16:41 (twenty-one years ago)

Reading the synopsis of, I think, the book, above filled in soooo many clues that the movie didn't begin to deal with, and yet showed us through a host of red herrings...eg. the plane wrecked in the desert. Had it crashed into the dessert, ah, then we'd have us a movie.

By cutting out all extraneous plot elements, you wind up with a carbon copy of National Treasure (x-post). The exactness of the copy, however, is stunning, right down to the foreign-born female lead who's more American than thou. Early American coins as critical plot elements. Nerd with computers. Eerie, how similar the two films are.

Obviously, competing factions in Hollywood were making the two films at the same time in direct competition with one another. National Treasure finished first and got to the theaters earlier. I personally think it's better, even pretty good. National Treasure that is. Not Sahara.

The racist depictions, of various sorts, of the Africans in the films is less like Haggard than like D.W. Griffith. Surprising.

Frequently, I admit, I go to the movies as a mood lifter, distraction, bubble gum kind of experience. I don't always want to be challenged by a film. On the other hand, sometimes I do want more. A film like Sahara was hardly on my must-see list, but ended up on my I-saw-it-last-night-because-I-was-bored- and-didn't-want-to-complete-my-tax-return list. With that criterion, it wasn't unenjoyable. It was, nonetheless, an horrible movie.

― EComplex (EComplex), Wednesday, 13 April 2005 18:05 (twenty-one years ago)

Sort of funny to compare the actors who played Dirk Pitt, Al Giordino, and Adm. Sandecker in 1980's Raise the Titanc and 2005's Sahara.

Sahara: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0318649/fullcredits
Raise the Titanic: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081400/fullcredits

― EComplex (EComplex), Wednesday, 13 April 2005 22:10 (twenty-one years ago)

one year passes...

Of all ways to be reminded of this film.

A Hollywood partnership between best-selling author Clive Cussler and Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz had the potential to spawn a lucrative action-film franchise such as the "Indiana Jones" series. Instead, the collaboration went sour and led them to a California court room.

Anschutz gave Cussler creative control _ a rarity in Hollywood _ over films based on his books featuring his fictional alter ego, Dirk Pitt.

In return, the writer would be paid $10 million for each book that became a movie and receive consultation and approval rights.

The good will between the two, however, ended in a dustup during the production of "Sahara," starring Matthew McConaughey and Penelope Cruz. Cussler claimed the adaptation of his book was ruined by bad scripts. Anschutz countered the author was irrational and difficult.

The two are now in court, accusing one another in dueling lawsuits of crippling the 2005 film, which grossed about $68 million at the U.S. box office.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 1 February 2007 17:02 (nineteen years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.

Come non-anticipate _Sahara_ with me