Sahara

Blah blah blah. So what that it's based on the best-selling book of the same name by Clive Cussler and failed to gross the film's budget, amidst many negative reviews. It doesn't matter because you have to separate adaptations from their original medium.
Sahara was supposed to be first film out of several surrounding the Dirk Pitt (Matthew McConaughey) novel series. Much like every film adaptation the producers of the film must strip the plot down to it's most central elements and that is Dirk Pitt, marine engineer, explorer and former Navy SEAL along with his team (Steve Zahn) are in Africa essentially treasure hunting when trouble, in the attractive form of Eva Rojas (Penélope Cruz), a World Health Organization doctor surfaces. He's on the search for a Civil War Ironclad ship, and she's on a mission trying to discover the source of a terrible illness that is killing innocent Africans. By helping each other, they help themselves.
I have to admit that the plot did cater to the, I know this is fiction so it's okay to be unbelievable side while it stung like a bee with social commentary. Since viewing I'm stuck with the line, "Don't worry. It's Africa. Nobody cares about Africa." as said by General Zateb Kazim, the film's antagonist when informed his actions may have consequences the whole world would have to suffer. Hey, go big or go home.
Getting down to business, what we have here is a fun, light-hearted adventure story with an ending we can all guess will happen before the second act. As long as you don't take the film to serious you can't really be let down.