Fool's Gold (2007)

Links: IMDb * Wikipedia * AllMovie * Rotten Tomatoes

Premise: A young couple seek Spanish treasure in the Florida Keys while being pursued by a hip-hop mogul hungry for more money.

Stars: Kate Hudson * Matthew McConaughey * Ray Winstone * Donald Sutherland * Alexis Dziena * Ewen Bremner

Review: A disappointment. I like McConaughey - sometimes called the poor man's Tom Cruise - and I like Donald Sutherland. Hudson can be alright sometimes, like in Almost Famous and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (the previous pairing of her and MM). Winstone and Bremner are solid character actors given decent roles. But the story loses its grip with Dziena and the hip-hop mogul Biggs Bunny and his hired goons (Malcolm Jamal-Warner of the Cosby Show puts in an appearance).

Okay, to be honest, it starts losing its grip earlier. Flynn (McConaughey) and Alfonz (Bremner) accidentally set fire to his boat at the same time Hudson (playing McConaughey's love interest, Tess) is filing for divorce. He's been searching for lost treasure and owes a large sum of money to a hip-hop mogul who bought his own island. He tries to prove he found the location to Biggs Bunny (inspiring name) but the mogul sends him out to be killed; the goons chain him to an anchor, then proceed to get shot by Flynn in comical fashion. Flynn falls off the boat, sinks, and comically performs underwater hops to grab the fallen gun, and shoots the chain freeing himself. He proceeds to get picked up by four partiers - who throw him a beer before they pick him up - and they rush him to court for his divorce proceedings.

Sounds impressive, but it ain't.

Flynn and Tess enlist the aid of her boss - Donald Sutherland - whose air-headed teenage (I'm not sure if she's supposed to be a teen or early twenties) daughter (Dziena) is visiting. Once the father-daughter pair sign on for the adventure, Bremner also joins the fun. While they pursue the treasure, Bunny and his hired help enlist the aid of another treasure-hunter, played by Winstone, to find the ship on their own.

Drawn by the prospect of being rich - and their smouldering passion for each other (presumably written in the screenplay but not apparent on-screen) - Tess and Flynn fall back into each other's arms - again in comic fashion. I think the director honestly had no idea when to be humourous and when not to be. Moments of passion become near-farcical. Thugs become oafish, and hip-hop mogul is hard to fathom to begin with. Characters are not true to their natures, and those natures do not change from the beginning of the film. While distracting, the only bright spot in the movie - which could've definitely been a more interesting lead angle - is the father-daughter dynamic between Sutherland and Dziena. Unfortunately, cast as the backstory to the protagonists, both actors' performances are stilted and feel lacking.

And when the daughter unexpectedly shows up at the big climax of the movie to save the day, it feels hollow because once again, characters are not true to themselves.

Bad writing. Stilted dialogue. Poor comedic timing.

Overall: Bad