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AT THE press junket for Fool's Gold, I had the pleasure of sitting beside a lovely Belgian gentleman whose opinion ran rather contrary to most of the cynical Brits present.

He thought the film was quite the sum of its parts, and would more than satisfy anyone looking for a particularly undemanding night out.

And I have to admit that, despite its really terrible shortcomings, if you require honed bods rippling in swimwear while cavorting in an exotic location, Fool's Gold may be right up your avenue.

Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson, whose chemistry in How to Lose A Guy in 10 Days guaranteed they'd be teamed up again, star as former spouses Benjamin (AKA Finn) and Tess Finnegan, whose divorce occupies the first section of the film.

Brought together by a passion for each other and for treasure, they had split when Finn's obsession with the case of an 18th century Spanish shipwreck, involving 40 chests of jewels known as the Queen's Dowry, threatened their financial and personal life.

But the discovery of part of a plate connected to the aforementioned haul renews his passion for the quest, and so he manages to convince Tess' employer, rich British businessman Nigel Honeycutt (Donald Sutherland), to back his search.

When film projects go wrong, it's sometimes difficult to pinpoint exactly why - not so here. How on earth was anyone supposed to do better with such a dire script?

How could anyone possibly imagine that including a ludicrous rapper character called Bigg(ok) Bunny would fit in with the plot outlined above, or that the scene where someone is shot dead wouldn't veer the tone wildly off course? Or that the complex explanations of the history of the treasure could be explained in just one lengthy scene of exposition?

Director Andy Tennant's style is fine, suiting both his actors and the fabulous locations. He only makes one big mistake. "Let's not do the accent thing," Tess says at one point - words he should have said to Ewan Bremner, supposedly playing a Ukranian, and Donald Sutherland, giving us Yoda-esque posh English.

Kate and Matthew do work well together. And, let's be honest, people should know what to expect from him by now. After starting his career so well with brilliant performances in Lone Star and A Time to Kill, he now clearly chooses his jobs based on their filming location and the japes he can get up to.

Hilariously, his next film is Surfer Dude, a tale of a board freak who experiences an "existential crisis" - more sun and sea, then.

His character's scripted arc is total rubbish - he gets beaten up a lot - as is Kate's, but she manages to give a decent, spirited performance nonetheless.

Her bikini screen time is relatively brief, so she has to do other things to retain our attention.

She succeeds, despite both her lines and the relentless posing of her scarily buff, mostly shirtless, co-star.

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