pete vonder haar of "film threat" gave the film one and a half stars and said "the resolution is never in doubt, the villains are comedic rather than menacing, and no one involved seems to care one way or the other that their names are attached to this indifferent mess." vonder haar said mcconaughey plays finn "as "sahara"s dirk pitt minus the seal training and a few million brain cells." and asked "does mcconaughey have some codicil in his contract stipulating he must spend at least 51% of a movie shirtless?" sid smith of the "chicago tribune" gave it two stars out of four and said the characters "are comic book clichés". smith said "the outcome is predictable" and "the wasted talents include sutherland, affecting a hokey british accent, and hatchet-faced ewen bremner." brian lowry of "variety" said, "the lure of matthew mcconaughey shirtless for extended stretches doubtless has some marketing value, but after that, "fool's gold" offers small compensation." lowry wrote "at times the pic feels like a comedic version of "the deep", only without the comedy." lowry said the tropic scenery was well-shot but said "there's not much chemistry" between mcconaughey and hudson.