Hello international friends! Thank you for checking out our Fool’s Gold Review.
The General Idea
Plot synopsis from IMDB: Fools Gold stars Matthew McConaughey as Ben Finn Finnegan, a good-natured, surf bum-turned-treasure hunter who is obsessed with finding the legendary 18th century Queens Dowry — 40 chests of exotic treasure that was lost at sea in 1715. In his quest, Finn has sunk everything he has, including his marriage to Tess Finnegan (Kate Hudson) and his more-rusty-than-trusty salvage boat, Booty Calls. Just as Tess has begun to rebuild her life, working aboard a mega-yacht owned by billionaire Nigel Honeycutt (Donald Sutherland), Finn discovers a vital clue to the treasures whereabouts. Certain that his luck will change with the newfound information, Finn maneuvers himself aboard Nigels yacht and, using his good-natured charm, convinces the tycoon and his Blackberry-wielding, celebutante daughter, Gemma (Alexis Dziena), to join him in the pursuit of the Spanish treasure. Against Tess better judgment, the search rekindles her loveof discovery. But they are not the only ones after the treasure. Finns mentor-turned-nemesis Moe Fitch (Ray Winstone) has also set out to claim the prize.
The Good
We get to see a lot of quality abs in this film. This movie celebrates abs more than it celebrates treasure and I would have preferred the title of Golden Abs Of The Caribbean. Donald Sutherland also has an outstanding collection of ascots that he sports in the film. I have been on the fence about ascots, but I think this may have put me over the edge. I think I may be an ascot man. My favorite film critic Alex Reynolds sports an ascot, and with his permission I would like to enter the club.
The Bad
This film actually didn’t have a bad treasure hunting story, but it was muddled to death with divorce arguments (that you never really bought into) and the family troubles between an insanely wealthy father and his daughter. I did not see the need to slow the film down and add in unnecessary dramatic tension. People did not come to this film to learn life lessons, they came to see a fun rom-com treasure hunt – with abs.
The film overall didn’t have a very good story. The dialogue was bad and the conversational jokes were not that amusing. The best parts of the film occured when the treasure hunting was happening; or when they were talking about their research. This would have been a better adventure film than a rom/com/adventure. By trying to do too much, nothing was done very well and by the end of the film I thought to myself “well I saw that coming, and I didn’t enjoy the ride”.
At 113 minutes, this film was also needlessly long, I am confused why they decided to keep so much in. This fun in the sun beach romp should have been just that.
Overall
If you like to look at Kate Hudson and/or Matthew Matthew McConaughey in swim-wear, then certainly go see this movie. If you are looking for a quality rom/com – you may want to skip this one. I did not loathe this film; it just wasn’t very good. I wouldn’t be comfortable recommending this movie, and out of 10, I suppose I would give it a 4.
