The recipe behind “Fool’s Gold” has all the necessary ingredients to be, if not a good movie, at least a decent, relaxing romantic comedic, just right for’s Saturday evening. Unfortunately, there is a error: someone made damn sure to follow the “recipe” to its smallest details.

Take one successful couple, Ben “Finn” Finnegan (Matthew McConaughey) and Tess Finnegan (Kate Hudson) (two actors who proved what they are capable of when paired up in 2003’s “How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days”) and mix it into a story about lost treasures (apparently a fashionable trend in Hollywood at the moment, judging by the “Pirates of the Caribbean” trilogy and “National Treasure”).

Add one gazillionaire by the name of Nigel Honeycutt (Donald Sutherland) and his eccentric, Paris Hilton copycat of a daughter, Gemma (Alexis Dziena). The mixture obviously will not lack the bad but likeable guy, here named Bigg Bunny (Kevin Hart), a peculiar kind of hip-hop gangster.

Unfortunately for “Fool’s Gold,” despite these handy ingredients, more or less of the exotic sort, director Andrew Tennant and screenwriters Daniel Zelman and  John Claflin fail horribly in their attempt to come up with a would-be romantic movie; amusing it isn’t in the least, if ever it was intended so. “Fool’s Gold” takes up each and every cliché Hollywood has tried us on, ever since the release of “Romancing the Stone” and reingurgitates it.

Ben “Finn” Finnegan is a treasure hunter whose personal charm resides mostly in his well-tanned pecs (McConaughey never misses an opportunity to showcase his physique) rather that in his wit or courage.

Fed up with listening to his endless stories about Spanish ships sunken with their priceless treasures, Tess divorces Finn. He however, is on the point of making the discovery of his life. After years of surfing and idling away on beaches, Finn has finally come across the hint that will help him find the lost treasure of Queen’s Dowry.

Adventure creeps in, as Finn’s one-time mentor, Moe Fitch (Ray Winstone), and a ruthless local gangster, Big Bunny, are intent on beating Finn to the trove.

Disillusioned and without the money to get her back home, Tess finds a job as a stewardess on the ship of a billionaire, Nigel Honeycutt, only to discover that her former husband is already on friendly terms with her new employer, after saving Gemma’s hat during a nautical catastrophe.

As you may already suspect, Honeycutt & Co. are more than thrilled to join the hunt for the treasure.

Why is the movie a disaster though? It lasts more than one hour yet never succeeds in convincing anyone of anything.

McConaughey never manages to convince that his Ben has anything to do with treasure hunting or that he loves Tess. By the end of the movie, you start asking yourself what exactly his place in this movie is and whether or not he stepped on the wrong filming set.

Hudson seems to be going through a similar experience, and the movie fails to explain why her character would love Ben. That the man is good in bed is obstinately repeated throughout the film, yet the attraction between the two stars seems to sizzle down to naught.

 Also, the reiteration of several jokes and clichés finally makes you wonder whether the screenwriters were offered a bonus should they rehash a certain number of gags.

On the other hand, the script offers so many turns and twists and introduces so many characters just for the fun of it that it ultimately becomes a mnemonic exercise to understand who’s who and why.

Since it is obvious within the first 15 minutes that Finn will get both the treasure and the girl (whichever of the two as he seems to desire both just as much), it’s hard to understand why the director needed  an extra hour to explain all this.

Unless you’re a self-declared fan of Matthew McConaughey or Kate Hudson, better choose one of the other premieres this weekend.

“Fool’s Gold” has the doubtful ‘performance’ of scoring a measly 6% on Rotentomatoes and a 27-point rating out of 100 on Metacritic.com.

Anyway, click here to watch the movie’s trailer !