Deserting Sahara

I don't know where to start, so I'll start with this: Suck City.

I hate to trash movies because I realise what an enormous amount of work goes into them. I am sure that the cast and crew put forth heroic effort on this, but, sadly, I'm a reader of Clive Cussler's books and this film was yet another in what appears destined to be a serial killing of Mr. Cussler's fine books.

My first red flag was when the initial credits rolled and I saw that the producer was also the lead actor. It's my experience that this often - not always, but often - spells trouble. (think Costner) But I tried to swallow my fears and skepticism and look at the film objectively. Right away there was big trouble. Dirk Pitt is way too experienced to be in his mid 30s and this was not a flashback to his younger days, so WTH? Sorry, Mr. McConaughey, you have a handsome face and lovely abs, but Dirk Pitt? Have you ever read Cussler? Or even Pitt's Wikipedia entry? A little research would go a long way here. Dark hair and a commanding presence were both conspicuously absent in the film's Pitt. Instead, he's portrayed as - I dunno - that funny guy in school who's always in trouble. He has a witty answer for everything, but he's not of stellar intelligence. Do you know who I mean?

And Al Giordino is not a dumba$$ redneck. What's up with that? Still, John and I tried to swallow our disgust, but I found myself turning to the laptop and starting to surf. We tried fast forwarding, hoping things would improve, but alas. So before we had flushed any more precious minutes down the toilet we simply shut it off. There were more problems, but I've wasted enough of my life on this film as it is. Maybe those who have never read any Cussler loved this film. I don't know how it was received, and I generally avoid basing my film choices on such things, anyway, but I was definitely disappointed.