Written by: Patrick Massett, John Zinman
Directed by: Stephen Gaghan
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Edgar RamÃrez, Bryce Dallas Howard, Corey Stoll, Toby Kebbell, Craig T. Nelson, Macon Blair
Rating: R
My rating is simple, Watch It, It Depends, Skip it. Read my previous movie reviews!
Plot
Kenny Wells (Matthew McConaughey), a prospector desperate for a lucky break, teams up with a similarly eager geologist and sets off on a journey to find gold in the uncharted jungle of Indonesia.
Verdict
This wants to tap into the genre of schemers and sleazeballs, but we never get the crazy antics. It fully relies on a frequently shirtless (and pantsless) fat and bald Matthew McConaughey and past that there isn't much to this movie. Kenny's ever changing luck keeps this somewhat interesting, and if you don't know the story this is based upon, there is a nice twist towards the end, but it can't save this movie. This is an acting showcase inappropriately named a movie.
Skip it.
Review
It's a standard down on his luck guy needs a win and he hits a goldmine, literally. This has some nice jungle scenes for a change of scenery. Kenny's luck seems to change every other scene. He's up, he's down, and that repeats through the entire movie. You really don't know how Kenny will end up. He's a perpetual underdog and just when you think he'll either fail or succeed, his luck changes again.
As a wily and conniving 'businessman' who has an office in a bar, he proudly labels himself a prospector. The antics are kind of crazy, but after The Wolf of Wall Street it's just a bit tame. McConaughey goes all out, displaying his overweight, balding physique often. He's not really a good person, but he has a certain amount of charm. The character is the best part of this movie, but the downside to that is that there isn't much past that. There are numerous side characters and the movie doesn't do any of them justice. They all end up being flat. We get a couple of scenes that are poor attempts at building one of the side characters, but that's only a couple of dialog lines.
This movie is McConaughey chewing scenery.
He partners with a struggling geologist Acosta (Edgar Ramirez) in the hopes of finding gold in Indonesia. The movie tells us they are friends, but never gives us any supporting facts to back the claim. It never puts us in the moment like it should. The ups and downs keep this somewhat interesting, but it's incredibly shallow.
This is loosely based on the true story of the 1993 Bre-X mining scandal, one of the biggest stock scandals in Canadian history and the biggest mining scandal of all time.
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