Sahara
Paramount Pictures | Release Date: April 8, 2005 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
41
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 33 Critic Reviews
Positive:
4
Mixed:
23
Negative:
6
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
The casting is so strong and the overall filmmaking flair of the movie is so captivating that it basically works. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
I enjoyed this movie on its own dumb level. Read full review
70
The New York TimesStephen Holden
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. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianM. E. Russell
Surprisingly entertaining. Read full review
60
EmpireDan Jolin
About as good as a big, stupid American action movie can be without ever being anything better than a big, stupid American action movie. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
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. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneRobert K. Elder
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. Read full review
50
VarietyRobert Koehler
Saddled with more industry/celebrity baggage than a high-class safari voyage, Sahara is a rousing and only occasionally ridiculous adventure yarn. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
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. Read full review
50
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
The movie, first preposterously entertaining and then just preposterous, makes James Bond films look as logical as Euclidean geometry. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
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. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Spectacularly silly and perversely entertaining. Read full review
50
PremierePeter Debruge
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. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter Travers
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. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesKevin Crust
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. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia Puig
The film clocks in at under two hours, but the last 20 minutes feel like 40. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
I'm still trying to wrap my head around the historical premise for this Indiana Jones knockoff. Read full review
50
New York PostKyle Smith
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. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
Eisner is not remotely up to the challenge. Spending millions on action scenes does not mean you get them right. Read full review
50
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Sahara doesn't waste time on introductions. It wastes time in other ways. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
Most of the personality work in the film is left to Steve Zahn. Read full review
50
Film ThreatPete Vonder Haar
It ain't art, and it's dumber than I'd like, but I don't imagine you were expecting Kieslowski. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
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. Read full review
40
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
McConaughey is usually a welcome presence, but here, he looks like making the movie was getting in the way of his exciting African adventure. Read full review
40
L.A. WeeklyChuck Wilson
This perfectly distracting, ultimately unsatisfying film feels like a James Bond flick in which the stand-in got the lead. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
Just don't go expecting complex moral and ethical quandaries and you'll likely never think of "Ishtar" even once. Read full review
40
Village VoiceJessica Winter
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. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeJanice Page
In the end, the thing that Cussler's fans will probably object to most is the nonsensical way Sahara manhandles his story. Read full review
30
Washington PostDesson Thomson
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. Read full review
30
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
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. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
An adventure in mediocrity that brings together some of the worst current techniques and trends. Read full review
20
Washington PostStephen Hunter
Sahara is a mediocrity wrapped inside a banality, toasted in a nice, fresh cliche. Read full review
10
Dallas ObserverRobert Wilonsky
A stunning piece of work--stunningly inept, stunningly incoherent, stunningly awful in every single way imaginable. Read full review
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