A relentlessly shirtless Matthew McConaughey looks exceptionally blond, buff and bronzed in “Fool’s Gold.”
Does that last sentence stimulate your interest? Then you are precisely the woman or gay man who may find sufficient value in McConaughey’s pandering new romantic comedy adventure opposite his equally pretty counterpart in empty towheadedness, Kate Hudson.
Otherwise, the guilty pleasures of a sun-kissed Caribbean blue setting and sinewy torsos in bathing suits notwithstanding, you’ll have to check logic and good taste at the multiplex door to enjoy this over-the-top cliche-fest. It’s directed and co-written by a maestro of mediocrity, Andy Tennant (“Hitch,” “Sweet Home Alabama”), and marks the movie reunion of McConaughey and Hudson after 2003’s more tolerable “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.”
Broadening the target audience from that straight-up rom-com, today’s more male-friendly genre blend — in the vein of, say, “Romancing the Stone” — has the two flaxen stars bickering through sexual tension again this time as they also search for buried treasure.
To try to make enough sense out of the idiotic plot to regurgitate it here would be an exercise in futility. Suffice it to say that the filmmakers have somehow found a way to cram in as many stereotypes, bad foreign accents and cartoon violence as one studio-made feature film could possibly bear. Not funny or smart enough to satirize its stale comedic crutches, the action farce’s stock characters include a snooty yachting billionaire (Donald Sutherland), his impossibly skinny/slutty Lolita-like daughter (Alexis Dziena), and a greedy, gun-toting black rapper antagonist (Kevin Hart).
The supporting players exist to serve the main storyline between the off-and-on lovers. McConaughey’s Ben “Finn” Finnegan is a ne’er-do-well dreamer who sucks his soon-to-be ex-wife Tess (Hudson) back into his life when he gets new clues to solving his lifelong quest: to find a legendary bounty of royal Spanish booty that was supposedly lost at sea some 300 years ago.
Will they locate the fortune, keep it away from the bad guy, and “do the deed” before “The End”? Will you care?
Grinning away at each other in faux-tanned bliss, McConaughey and Hudson do share an undeniable screen chemistry. And the occasionally droll newcomer, Ms. Dziena steals a few scenes as a Paris Hilton wannabe. But when it comes to the rest of it, only fools will want to mine this “Gold” before the DVD release.
‘Fool’s Gold’
**
» Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Kate Hudson
» Director: Andy Tennant
» Rated PG-13 for action violence, some sexual material, brief nudity and language
» Running time: 103 minutes
