Fool's Gold (2008)

Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson team up once again for a romantic comedy experience that breaks no new barriers, sets no new attainable levels in the genre, or even remotely displays a unique script or relatively new idea. Yet for some reason the formula still works. At least for those of us who enjoy these carefree attempts at romantic comedies.

Ben Finnegan (Matthew McConaughey) is a beach bum fascinated with searching for buried treasure, specifically the Queen's Dowry. When he discovers a plate with the ship's seal on it he's overjoyed that all these years of searching have paid off, unfortunately for him he's going to have a lot more to pay off. In discovering the plate he also discovers his boat at the bottom of the sea which sank while he was underwater, now Ben has no boat, his wife Tess (Kate Hudson) is divorcing him and he owes a murderous thug named Bigg Bunny $60,000; needless to say he's in trouble.

Ben's tries to strike up a deal with Bigg Bunny by offering him a piece of whatever he finds of the Queen's Dowry, but Bunny wants nothing more to do with him and tries to take him out. Ben narrowly escapes death, but is unable to prevent his divorce. He tries to excite Tess about his discovery, something they spent years together looking for, but she's through with his shenanigans as well. Now the only shot Ben has at pinpointing the location of the treasure and retrieving it is to find someone with a boat and money willing to finance his quest, that happens to be billionaire Nigel Honeycutt, Tess's boss. This gives the Ben the opportunity to finally unearth the treasure he's spent most of his life searching for, and also gives him a chance at patching up his relationship with Tess.

Fool's Gold is a film for those who were fans of McConaughey's previous romantic comedy outings, How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days and Failure To Launch. If you didn't mind the predictable fluff and fun stories of those previous two films you'll find nothing less here. Sure McConaughey and Hudson play the same type of character's, but it works, and fans of their past films will get the same type of entertainment out of this adventure.

7/10