The movie is about Dirk Pitt (Matthew McConaughey), who works for the National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA). NUMA is a private organization that restores treasures lost to the world. At Dirk's side is his longtime friend and coworker, Al Giordino (Steve Zahn). After a successful job in Africa, the two take a detour to look for an Ironclad ship lost during the Civil War. For Dirk, finding this lost ship has become one of his biggest dreams. During their search, they run into Eva Rojas (Penelope Cruz), who is a doctor for the World Health Organization. She is currently investigating an epidemic in Mali and when her path crosses Dirk's, the real story of mayhem unfolds. There is a pair of bad guys who really do not want Eva to uncover the truth and consequently, Dirk and Al get in the way. The story shifts from treasure hunting to saving the world in a very unbelievable fashion.

One of Sahara's biggest problems is its storyline. It opens on one story about treasure hunting and then turns into a fight to save the world. While opening one story that uncovers a bigger tale happens a lot in feature films, the approach in Sahara isn't enough. The opening story about the treasure hunting is fairly big and some important questions are raised in the beginning. However, once the transition into the next story appears (saving the world), there is very little focus on the treasure hunting. Of course, in the very end of the movie, the first story is concluded with a half-ass story. Perhaps this is a poor gripe, but I really felt like the questions introduced needed to be answered more clearly. Instead, they were just glossed over as unimportant details.

Additionally, the story itself is full of many unbelievable action sequences. Like most action flicks, the good guys seem to have the ability to aim a firearm properly, while the bad guys can unleash round after round and always conveniently miss. Despite the unbelievable traditional gunfight sequences, there are also some just outright out of this world scenes. For instance, McConaughey and Zahn get handcuffed to a bed of a truck and are able to remove the bed from the truck by removing two screws with a gold coin while the truck is moving. They also cross the desert handcuffed to the bed and once their journey is over, they're fresh as can be.

As for the cast, the main roles were not filled really well. Cruz has a very small role and doesn't really provide a whole lot to the overall movie. I really like her, but she just didn't seem to fit into the movie. McConaughey played a charming, yet tough hero. He seemed to fit his role well, but not enough that it was truly convincing. Finally, Zahn really did not fit into this movie. His character is his traditional role as a goofy sidekick. The problem is that he's put into some serious scenes which require some major butt kicking and Zahn does not give off a kick ass attitude. On a positive note, when Zahn was not kicking ass, he was being an absolute goof, which I actually enjoyed. Zahn had some pretty good jokes here and there.

Overall, I wasn't too impressed with Sahara. The story was not very exciting and the events sometimes felt far too unrealistic and flowed somewhat haphazardly. Still, the movie has enough entertainment value to enjoy for a single viewing. However, whether you decide to do that in the theater or when it comes out on home video, the experience should be the same.