'FOOLS GOLD' SERVES UP ADVENTURE, LITE COMEDY ON THE DRUNKEN SEAS.Byline: BOB STRAUSS >FILM CRITIC The best thing you can say about "Fool's Gold fool's gold: see pyrite. " is that it gets less bad as it goes along. Sort of a "National Treasure" goes to Margaritaville and passes out on the beach, this repurposing of blond tanning prodigies Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson aims to be a light action romp. But parts of it, believe it or not, actually hurt your brain. Then it gets kind of violent, which feels gratuitous but is at least more watchable watch·a·ble adj. 1. Capable of being watched; viewable: watchable wildlife. 2. Good enough to watch: "The fastest modem ... than the film's listing first act. That's when we get to know McConaughey's Finn, a shirt-averse SCUBA bum who seems like a total dingbat ding·bat n. 1. Slang An empty-headed or silly person. 2. An object, such as a brick or stone, used as a missile. 3. ; he doesn't even notice his boat sinking while he digs beneath the waters off a small Bahamian key. His more sensible wife, Tess (Hudson), who divorces Finn then bonks him on the head with a cane, finds work on super-rich Nigel Honeycutt's (Donald Sutherland) mega-yacht. She's appalled when Finn worms his way onto the vessel. But once the estranged es·trange tr.v. es·tranged, es·trang·ing, es·trang·es 1. To make hostile, unsympathetic, or indifferent; alienate. 2. To remove from an accustomed place or set of associations. twosome start telling Honeycutt and his Paris Hiltonish daughter Gemma (Alexis Dziena Alexis Gabbriel Dziena (born July 8 1984, pronounced da-ZEE-na) is an American actress. ) about their mutual passion -- finding a fortune in royal Spanish wedding jewels lost at sea 400-odd years ago -- we discover that Finn isn't as dumb and Tess isn't as mean as we presumed they were. Unfortunately, to come to these striking realizations, we have to listen to the longest convoluted backstory back·sto·ry n. 1. The experiences of a character or the circumstances of an event that occur before the action or narrative of a literary, cinematic, or dramatic work: ever filmed. This will kill more audience interest than the endings of "There Will Be Blood" and "No Country for Old Men" combined. Which you could say is too bad because soon after that, hissable bad guys, adequate romantic tomfoolery and decent water stunts move in. None of which is that great, though, so tragedy avoided. I guess "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days" proved Hudson and McConaughey have something together; there's certainly no other explanation why that nasty comedy was so popular. But their powers are sorely tested here by Andy Tennant's uncharacteristically listless (programming) listless - In functional programming, a property of a function which allows it to be combined with other functions in a way that eliminates intermediate data structures, especially lists. direction. He's done this kind of business better in the likes of "Hitch" and "Sweet Home Alabama Sweet Home Alabama (song) ," but his timing is all, ahem, at sea on "Fool's Gold." The fault of too much Cuervo Gold, perhaps? Bob Strauss, (818) 713-3670 bob.strauss@dailynews.com FOOL'S GOLD - Two stars >PG-13: violence, sex, nudity, language. >Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Kate Hudson, Donald Sutherland, Alexis Dziena, Kevin Hart, Ray Winstone. >Director: Andy Tennant. >Running time: 1 hr. 53 min. >Playing: Area wide. >In a nutshell: Sun, surf and sunken treasure. You'd think it'd be more fun. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. sunken treasure -- but rekindling their romance along the way -- are Ben (Matthew McConaughey) and Tess (Kate Hudson) in "Fools' Gold." |
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