FOOL’S GOLD pits treasure hunter Ben ‘Finn’ Finnegan (Mathew McConaughey) against wife or ex-wife Tess (Kate Hudson) as they hunt an 18th century Queen’s sunken treasure in the Caribbean.  Finn and Tess have worked before in similar ventures but they are now on the brink of divorce.  But as Valentine Day’s romantic comedy adventures go, the couple are very much still in love and it does not take a human being with an ounce of breath to guess that these two will get together again.  The obstacles are the bad men, mainly gangster Bigg Bunny (Kevin Hart) who also wants the Spanish treasure.

McConaughey thinks bearing his top and occasionally his all equates to roguish charm.  Donald Sutherland (as billionaire Nigel Honeycutt) often opens his mouth and nothing comes out – an indication of insufficient interesting dialogue written in the script.  Even the normally excellent Ray Winstone (SEXY BEAST, THE PROPOSITION and BEOWULF) is largely wasted here.  Hudson and Alexis Dziena provide skin to distract the male audiences.

The most inventive thing about FOOL’S GOLD is the names of the characters.  (Things that don’t matter!) FOOL’S GOLD contains too many flaws to mention – a few being lame dialogue, silly subplots, bad chemistry, totally unfunny set-ups – resulting in the film being a total bore.  The climatic fight which involves Finn’s hop from a skidoo to a plane is well executed but by that time, all interest in the plot and story are gone. 

What a shame as a lot of effort went into the film’s making.  FOOL’s GOLD was shot off the western coast of Australia with the end scenes completed in the Caribbean.  All the actors including Hudson had to learn and earn diving certificates.  The underwater photography and the shots on the boats and yacht were undoubtedly a pain to execute.  Just like hunting for sunken treasure, FOOL’S GOLD is a clear example of maximum effort with minimum result.