Sahara

It’s easy to compare Sahara to last year’s surprisingly successful National Treasure, but Sahara becomes increasingly unhinged as the story progresses | Andrew Coffin

When an author launches a nearly $100 million lawsuit against a movie based on his novel, that can be a bad sign. When four separate writers are credited with a screenplay (five, if you count Clive Cussler, author of said novel—although he’d probably prefer that you didn’t), that too can be a bad sign.

Sahara arrives in theaters with just such a pedigree. Rated a mild PG-13 (for action violence) and centering on a treasure hunter obsessed with an arcane historical mystery, it’s easy to compare Sahara to last year’s surprisingly successful National Treasure. But where National Treasure held to a certain silly logic and narrative structure, Sahara becomes increasingly unhinged as the story progresses.