Metascore
41 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 33 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 33
  2. Negative: 6 out of 33
  1. 75
    I enjoyed this movie on its own dumb level.
  2. The casting is so strong and the overall filmmaking flair of the movie is so captivating that it basically works.
  3. As Sahara careens between swashbuckling silliness and semi-serious comment, it builds up reserves of energy and good will that pay off when it bursts into its final sprint, a rootin'-tootin' 21-gun finale as satisfying as it is preposterous.
  4. Surprisingly entertaining.
  5. Reviewed by: Dan Jolin
    60
    About as good as a big, stupid American action movie can be without ever being anything better than a big, stupid American action movie.
  6. This insanely busy, exceedingly long, and sometimes endearingly preposterous rendering has simply gotten the directions reversed in its insistence on sticking only to where men-who-make-adventure-flicks have gone before.
  7. 50
    McConaughey, despite alarmingly orange makeup, does justice to the role, a hard-drinking, shipwreck- hunting senator's son with a 007 way with the ladies.
  8. Action films can't be this consistently absurd, can't paint their heroes into such dangerous corners, from which only cocktails of luck and divine intervention can save them, over and over. It's a bad-faith bargain with the audience and bad storytelling.
  9. 50
    It's not that Sahara is offensively bad: It's just that the picture, loud and busy as it is, never really finds its own identity.
  10. Eisner is not remotely up to the challenge. Spending millions on action scenes does not mean you get them right.
  11. Reviewed by: Kyle Smith
    50
    If the filmmakers had spent $14.98 of that $100 mil on a DVD of "The Mummy," they might have learned a few things: You need a head villain who is surpassingly evil, you need some jokes that get laughs - and a few sword-fighting skeletons wouldn't hurt.
  12. Spectacularly silly and perversely entertaining.
  13. Reviewed by: Claudia Puig
    50
    The film clocks in at under two hours, but the last 20 minutes feel like 40.
  14. 50
    Takes the action/adventure story to new heights of preposterousness. In a way, that's not a bad thing, since it allows a certain level of guilty enjoyment.
  15. Reviewed by: Peter Debruge
    50
    Rojas is played by Penélope Cruz, who's endearing enough, but still comes across coarse and irritating every time she attempts a role in English.
  16. Most of the personality work in the film is left to Steve Zahn.
  17. 50
    Sahara doesn't waste time on introductions. It wastes time in other ways.
  18. The movie, first preposterously entertaining and then just preposterous, makes James Bond films look as logical as Euclidean geometry.
  19. 50
    It ain't art, and it's dumber than I'd like, but I don't imagine you were expecting Kieslowski.
  20. 50
    Breck Eisner, son of former Disney mogul Michael and something of a protégé of Steven Spielberg, for whom he directed an episode of the miniseries "Taken," guides Sahara's big action set pieces with assurance, but would have been better served by a tighter script.
  21. Reviewed by: Robert Koehler
    50
    Saddled with more industry/celebrity baggage than a high-class safari voyage, Sahara is a rousing and only occasionally ridiculous adventure yarn.
  22. 50
    I'm still trying to wrap my head around the historical premise for this Indiana Jones knockoff.
  23. Any movie starring Penelope Cruz or William H. Macy can't be all bad. And Sahara, which stars both Penelope Cruz and William H. Macy, proves the point: It isn't all bad.
  24. 40
    Just don't go expecting complex moral and ethical quandaries and you'll likely never think of "Ishtar" even once.
  25. 40
    This perfectly distracting, ultimately unsatisfying film feels like a James Bond flick in which the stand-in got the lead.
  26. 40
    McConaughey is usually a welcome presence, but here, he looks like making the movie was getting in the way of his exciting African adventure.
  27. 40
    Sahara is many things, but it is not a movie. It is the skull-splitting cacophony of 21 producers and four screenwriters (that we know about, anyway) standing in the same room shouting into their cell phones.
  28. 38
    In the end, the thing that Cussler's fans will probably object to most is the nonsensical way Sahara manhandles his story.
  29. 30
    The greatest hits of '70s bar-rock soundtrack - "We're an American Band," "Right Place, Wrong Time," "Sweet Home Alabama," "Magic Carpet Ride" etc. - has a certain rollicking, kick-ass energy that, unfortunately, never rubs off on the movie.
  30. McConaughey remains more buffed than compelling. He's not helped by a two-hour convolution of episodes that are too busy imitating other, better movies.
  31. An adventure in mediocrity that brings together some of the worst current techniques and trends.
  32. Sahara is a mediocrity wrapped inside a banality, toasted in a nice, fresh cliche.
  33. A stunning piece of work--stunningly inept, stunningly incoherent, stunningly awful in every single way imaginable.
User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 62 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 39 out of 51
  2. Negative: 10 out of 51
  1. D.A.
    10
    When "It's a Wonderful Life" came out, it was considered a grand flop, as well! It took 30+ years - by sheer fluke of luck - for that beautiful film to be recognized as the incredible gem we all now know and love... and I do LOVE this movie!! Sahara has great humor and chemistry and it just works. Still, timing is everything, and it simply wasn't this movie's time, unfortunately, because I would have loved to have seen McConaughey, Zahn, Macy, and Rainn Wilson work together again on this fantastic franchise. Full Review »
  2. I *will not* see this film trashed! This was a ripper of an adventure that should have been much more successful than it was. Indiana Jones with a wry smile. James Bond with tongue very firmly-in-cheek. Dashing and goofy rolled into one. Perhaps audiences didn't quite know what to do with this film?? It just hit the balance perfectly, imho, between being a couple of adventurers who happen upon a dastardly plot and a pinch of a slightly daffy comedy. This was undeniably a cut-above most films of its ilk -- and how few there are. I consider it a real tragedy that it wasn't more successful and that Sahara 2 will never be made. Full Review »
  3. This movie is AWESOME! Here are 3 reasons why. 1-A fun, creative, entertaining storyline that while not believable gave off an Indiana Jones aura that complimented it. 2- Its FUNNY! This movie will have you laughing all the way through. All the main characters are quit lovable in their own individual way. 3- Originality, I don't think I had ever seen a movie quite like this one. The story is quite its own thing. My only issue was the lack of theme, I do not remember any sort of theme underlying the story, and thus a lack of reason to watch this movie for more than pure entertainment. Overall this movie is AMAZING. Its no work of Shakespeare, but if you like a quality adventure you will love it. Full Review »