Movie Review: Fool's Gold

Now here's a film that couldn't be more farfetched in its premise and more watered-down in its approach. Fool's Gold takes the typical romantic adventure film and injects it with contemptibly unnecessary character development for its supporting cast and shows series of events either adding up too smoothly or being wholly unfathomable. Likely to make its projected profit based on the big-name cast, this stale re-hash of Romancing the Stone and National Treasure is about as much fun as sinking in a ship.

In 1715, a treasure galleon with hordes of money for the queen's dowry disappears in hurricane winds. Present day treasure hunters Ben Finnegan (Matthew McConaughey) and his ex-wife Tess (Kate Hudson) have been searching for the lost fortune for years, but continually get caught up in financial and marital problems. Ben discovers a clue to the whereabouts of the sunken ship and enlists the help of millionaire Nigel Honeycutt (Donald Sutherland) and his daughter Gemma (Alexis Dziena) while he attempts to uncover the loot and win back Tess. But rum-maven Bigg Bunny (Kevin Hart) is intent on getting his hands on the riches too, and isn't afraid to use brute force to stop those in his way.

PG-13 brute force, that is. The only killing that takes place is amongst the baddies and just about every other violent event is tinged with humor or inconceivability. Like nearly all recent toned-down comedies, the predicament is always too serious and the resolution too unlikely. For a villain unconcerned with cold-blooded murder, Bigg Bunny sure does shy away from deadly violence and even blood. Henchman Cyrus, on the other hand, relishes in brutality and evil grins. PG-13 evil grins.