On paper, "Fool’s Gold" seems like it would be an ideal movie to help cure those pesky winter blues. It features two very attractive lead characters (Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson) parading around in little clothing, swimming in the beautiful Bahamas. (Those water shots were almost enough to make me feel like I wasn’t bundled up Eskimo-style while watching.)
Unfortunately, I believe the people who wrote this script had too much island cocktails during the first shooting draft and the actors just wanted to film a movie somewhere pretty.
The premise of the movie is two people, who are dealing with their divorce, team together to try to find a 293-year-old sunken treasure while trying to fend off evil rapper Bigg Bunny (Kevin Hart). And that’s pretty much it.
When it starts, you know it’s going to be one of those screwball comedies when treasure seeking scuba-diver slackers Ben "Finn" Finnegan (McConaughey) and Alfonz (Ewen Bremner) don’t notice that their own boat has caught on fire and sunk to the ocean floor not 20 feet away from them.
After that smile and eye roll inducing scene, the movie screeches to a halt with minimal laughs and a puzzling script. (Most of the laughs were supplied by the Ukrainian Alfonz, who sounds a bit like a drunken Dracula with his mouth full of blood.)
There was a myriad of problems after the cutesy scene. In most cases, back-story is a key movie ingredient, but "Fool’s Gold" sinks because it spends too much time on the divorce of Finn and Tess (Hudson) and way too much time of the secret keeper who knows where the 1715 Spanish galleon is. (Even the actors seemed confused by what they were saying during that scene. Poor Donald Sutherland. He looked more sea sick in that snoozing part than interested in hearing about it.)
But what was most disappointing about this movie was Hudson. McConaughey had fun with his slacker role but Hudson had this expression of her face like ‘this might have been another bad movie-making decision.’ I think she’s a great actress, but doesn’t always select the best movies to display her talents. She needs another "Almost Famous" to her credit. She was marvelous as groupie, er, band-aide, Penny Lane.
While "Fool’s Gold" won’t leave your sides splitting from laughter, it’s good for a chuckle or two. And you can’t beat a shirtless McConaughey. That sight will warm you up better than a blanket and hot chocolate on a freezing winter night.
However, thanks to viewing this movie with such frigid temperatures outside, it leads to contemplation of packing up and being a beach bum for the rest of your life. I think it should have been titled "How to make Ohioans desire the leave the state during winter in less than two hours."
I gave this film a C-.
Dedra Cordle is a Messenger staff writer.
