AMG Review of Sahara

James Christopher Monger
All Music Guide

When a soundtrack jacket sports the phrase "Music From & Inspired by the Motion Picture," it usually means that the film's financiers -- who inevitably own or run a record label -- have some hot, crappy new band to push and would love to include their latest single alongside five to ten minutes of actual film music. In the case of the Matthew McConaughey popcorn-snapper #Sahara, the producers have actually built a soundtrack around the lead character -- McConaughey's globe-trotting protagonist is a true classic rock aficionado -- and loaded up the jukebox with 11 hard-driving, pot-smoking anthems like Canned Heat's "On the Road Again," Grand Funk Railroad's "We're an American Band," as well as more obscure FM nuggets from the Kinks, Head East and the Marshall Tucker Band. Composer Clint Mansell's Afro-pop-tinged score is given two-minutes-an- twenty-seconds at the end.