Although "Sahara" is based on the best-selling Clive Cussler novel that preceded the movie "National Treasure," from another Cussler novel, by more than a decade, "Sahara" almost seems designed to cash in on the success of last year's hit.
And it lacks the winking acknowledgment of the inherent silliness of its plot, which was one of the saving graces of "National Treasure."
What little humor "Sahara" has is forced, and of the goofy, "buddy-film" shenanigans variety. Speaking of silly and goofy, those terms also describe the performance of Matthew McConaughey, who stars as Cussler's hero, Dirk Pitt.
As the film starts, Pitt and his National Underwater and Marine Agency cohorts — including Al Giordino (Steve Zahn) — are trying to find a long-lost "ironclad," one of the armored ships used by the Confederate Army.
Their search takes them, of all places, to North Africa, where they encounter Eva Rojas (Penelope Cruz), a World Health Organization doctor who's discovered what appears to be a plague afflicting some of the locals.
As it turns out, both their efforts are being thwarted by would-be West African warlord (Lennie James) and a greedy billionaire industrialist (Lambert Wilson), who may have caused one of the world's worst environmental disasters.
Among the film's many problems: It's so overlong and over-plotted . . . and so over-directed by Breck Eisner, the son of Disney CEO Michael Eisner.
The younger Eisner also misuses character actors Delroy Lindo and William H. Macy, who are stuck in go-nowhere supporting roles as a CIA agent and Pitt's retired U.S. Navy admiral boss, respectively. They're on-screen for what seems like a grand total of five minutes.
That would be fine if the film featured a dominating, charismatic McConaughey performance — the kind he offers only once in a blue moon. Instead, he seems to be taking parts of the film off and often defers to his on-screen and off-screen love, Cruz, who becomes more of an annoyance the longer she's in this movie.
So does Zahn, who's normally funnier than he is here. (Both Zahn and McConaughey's characters are so dim you have to wonder how they got their reputations as great adventurers.)
"Sahara" is rated PG-13 for action violence (shootings, hand-to-hand combat, violence against women and explosive mayhem), brief drug content (including hypodermic needle use), off-color humor and suggestive banter, brief gore and brief, partial male nudity. Running time: 127 minutes.
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