Sahara (DVD)

Dirk Pitt, adventurer and former Marine, has long held an ambition to find a battleship that disappeared in the Sahara, a relic of the Civil War. He sets off to find it with best friend Al Giordino in tow. But the path of a true adventurer is never straightforward. On the way, he meets a UN doctor, Eva Rojas, who believes that an epidemic killing thousands of West Africans may have a human explanation. Certainly, an African warlord seems intent on seeing them out of the country. Will Dr Rojas be able to prove the source of the epidemic? And will Pitt and Giordino find their battleship? Based on a book by Clive Cussler that I have never read, I didn't really ...  Read the complete review

Adventure Has A New Destination Sahara, a rip-roaring action adventure in the style of Indiana Jones and the more recent National Treasure, is based on the characters from Clive Cussler's best selling Dirk Pitt novels. In fact the legend "A Clive Cussler Dirk Pitt Adventure" appears in the opening credits. Dirk Pitt previously appeared in the dismal box office failure "Raise The Titanic" back in the 70's and hasn't been seen since, not surprising really as it was an awful film. In fact it was such an unmitigated disaster that producers and film companies were probably scared off doing another adaptation of a Cussler book, but in the ...  Read the complete review

Sahara is clearly one of those films that studios occasionally tentatively float out in the hope of creating a money-spinning franchise with lots of lovely sequels. Since it's based on the Dirk Pitt series of novels from Clive Cussler, if Sahara succeeded, there was already a wealth of instantly available storylines available to rush into production. Unfortunately for Paramount, whilst they produced an adequate film, it was never really going to set the world alight. It's impossible even to begin explaining the plot to Sahara, not because it's incredibly complex, but because it doesn't make a whole heap of sense. Apparently, it's something to do with Dirk ...  Read the complete review

This was a strange film. I came to watch this knowing little about what kind of film it would turn out to be and overall I was pleasantly surprised. How to describe it? Well think Indiana Jones meets James Bond and you get a fairly good idea of what to expect. The film starts in 1865 during the American Civil War. The stakes for both sides had just got higher with the invention of the Ironclads, warships covered in iron plates making them the most powerful weapons of their time. One such Ironclad on the Confederate side the ‘Texas’, is under attack but then mysteriously disappears into the mist never to be seen again. Wind forward more than a ...  Read the complete review

In 1865 the "Texas", a Confederate iron clad ship escapes into the Atlantic, never to be seen or heard from again… Dirk Pitt (Matthew McConaughey) is an ex-Navy SEAL working for the National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA), headed by Admiral James Sandecker (William H. Macy). They specialise in underwater archaeology and while off the coast of Africa, Dirk Pitt once again raises his theory that the "Texas" had sailed all the way across the Atlantic to Africa. Eva Rojas (Penélope Cruz) is a doctor working for the World Health Organisation, investigating the possible outbreak of some kind of plague. Their paths cross, first ...  Read the complete review