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"Fools Gold" centers on an almost divorced, or newly divorced, or still madly-in-love couple (all 3 apply) searching for Spanish treasure that was sunk in a hurricane in 1715. Does the movie succeed as balmy escapism from the winter doldrums? Let's see…

Is there action?: Yes, the action was there, fun at parts, but broken up by a lot of talking that really didn't advance the plot, but worked well to confuse it (I mean a lot of talking). There was also the sound of crickets chirping that at some points was so loud it drowned out the dialogue. On purpose perhaps?

Did the actors have chemistry?: Yes, in "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days" they did. However, both Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson are likable enough off-screen and in other films that you want to root for them, despite the flaws of this film.

How 'bout the location?: I was never quite sure where the story was supposed to be set. The real 1715 fleet went down off the Eastern coast of Florida near Cape Canaveral. At one point in the movie they said they were in Key West, but I've been there enough times to know that those mountainous islands in the distance weren't anywhere near Duval Street. The movie "The Deep," which also involved treasure hunters searching for the 1715 treasure, also suffered from a lack of appreciation of history, setting the wreck in Bermuda. But who can complain when you have a salty Robert Shaw and Jacqueline Bisset in a wet T-shirt?

Funny?: The laughs were few and far between. Theo Huxtable from "The Cosby Show" was one of the baddies, and I think his pal in the film might have been Cockroach (no word on whether or not their knowledge of the 1715 treasure was based on "Cleland Notes"). I remember laughing at parts, and then waiting to laugh again, and I was still waiting when the lights came up and the usher rolled a trashcan in. I was still waiting when I got in my car. I'm still waiting.

All bad?: What the movie does well is gets you out of the cold for a couple hours. There were picturesque vistas of the tropics, girls in bikinis, palm trees blowing in the breeze, and Bob Marley music in the background. You may fool yourself for a moment into believing that you're actually in the Caribbean, if you sneak in a Pina Colada or two, or three.

Post Script: If you want to read a real thrilling, funny, and sexy adventure story about treasure hunting for the 1715 fleet, try reading Tom Ryan's novel "A Sword for Pizarro."

My expectations for this movie were very low going in, and I would say that the movie met them. I expected a fun, exotic, exciting adventure, which the movie delivered upon. It is a fairly predictable movie, but always fun to watch Mathew McConaughey play the guy who hasn't grown up along with Kate Hudson playing the lady who wishes he would. Their chemistry is great, and isn't that all you really expect from a movie like this, regardless of plot?

The only thing that didn't fit in the movie was a couple of overly bloody scenes (on an absolute basis the blood was very minor, but the fact that they showed up at all was surprising.)

Not the best movie you will ever see, but will certainly give you a break from all this extreme winter weather we have been having.

Fools Gold is exactly how you would expect it to be. We have all heard the story before in SAHARA and dare I say it, Into the Blue, although this movie is obviously a comedy/adventure.

As for the story's strength and the actors performances, again, it's exactly what you would expect. McConaughey, Hudson and the other supporting characters deliver more than adequate performances and Donald Sutherland is as brilliant as he can be considering the overall quality of this movie.

Last but not least, pay attention to the accents, It seems like everybody has a fake (funny fake) accent. I'm not sure why they chose to fake the accents when everybody does a terrible job, but hey.. I guess it makes the movie even more entertaining.

Definitely watchable

This was a pretty good movie. I laughed and so did a lot of other people so I would definitely say it was worth the money and watching. Sometimes I think that people have nothing better to do but whine and moan cause they want to see every thing for free and have poor taste in movies. those are the people that wait in line three days to watch star wars and think everything else sucks. May have rated this a little high but wanted to get it up to at least 6.5/10. Has a couple slow parts but good story, and good footage of the ocean. I have liked all of Matthews movies over the years and Kate for that matter. The last movie they were in together was really good too. For a guy going to a chick flick with his girl at least it has some blood and action and doesn't make you want to cry.

I want to get some scuba gear and go look for treasure myself after watching this movie. Hope most of you don't read the first comment and give this a try to see if its worth it for yourself. I use to listen to a friend of my all the time about movies and would eventually see them and disagree most of the time and feel misinformed about how good a movie is. Now if he told me that a movie is a waste of time I would go see just to see if he was just being to hard on a good movie or telling the truth.

Well I hope to have been helpful, cause I know plenty of people in the theater I went to would agree that this was not a bad movie that you can see whats going to happen the whole time blah blah whine whine whine......

For the life of me, I cannot figure out why this movie is getting as lousy reviews as it is. I walked out of the theatre quite pleased; even if this movie will not get an Oscar, it earned the price of my ticket. It's campy, silly, and bright, and there is nothing like a fluffy romp around the sunny islands to cure those winter blues.

Admittedly, it's a contrived, predictable mystery, but that proves to be the focus rather than the romantic comedy that was promoted. But in the spirit of Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys, it's a spunky predictable mystery. No, the characters were not all complex, but at least the powers that be went to the trouble of making them entertaining and personable.

I liked the idea of looking for sunken treasure. I liked the upbeat island soundtrack. I liked the funny characters. I liked the pretty scenes and the silly lines. I liked the random explosions and fight scenes, as pleasantly ridiculous as they were.

Kate and Matthew have the chemistry they had in "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days". They have the sunny dispositions to pull off a mindless-but-fun storyline and to work with a wacky cast.

It's mind candy in all its fluffy goodness.