One and 1/2 stars

"Fool's Gold" is one of those pictures that obviously was more fun to make than it is to watch. Its cast got an all-expenses-paid trip to a tropical paradise to work on their tans while they yukked it up, trying to make a bad script seem entertaining.

Consequently, "Fool's Gold" is about as entertaining as watching the home movies of someone else's Caribbean vacation. This is entertainment?

The film would like to be a romantic adventure along the lines of "Romancing the Stone." In actuality, "Fool's Gold" is a cinematic version of Sports Illustrated's swimsuit issue, with Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey serving as the models and acting just as vacuously.

McConaughey is Ben "Finn" Finnegan, a south Florida treasure hunter who obsesses over finding the legendary 18th-century Queen's Dowry treasure, which was lost somewhere in the Caribbean.

Trouble is, Finn is not the brightest bulb in the ceiling and he tends to have more problems than luck.

First, his wife, Tess (Hudson), wants to divorce him because Finn is constantly broke and perpetually unreliable. Second, because he's always broke, Finn's into a local island gangsta named Bigg Bunny (Kevin Hart) for a debt of more than $60,000. And finally, Finn's salvaging efforts are constantly being undermined by Moe Fitch (Ray Winstone), a former partner who now is his primary competition.

As everything in his life seems to be sinking around him, Finn discovers the remnants of a plate that could be from the Queen's Dowry wreckage. In trying to convince Tess as to the authenticity of his find, Finn persuades multi-millionaire Nigel Honey-cutt (Donald Sutherland) to bankroll him.

Honeycutt, it seems, has his own issues in trying to reconcile with his ditzy bimbo daughter, Gemma (Alexis Dziena). But Gemma is thrilled with the prospect of treasure-hunting, so to please his daughter, Honeycutt agrees to back Finn -- much to Tess' chagrin.

Just as the characters in "Fool's Gold" appear to be refugees from other movies, the film itself plays in a disconnected manner, both in plot and tone. Director Andy Tennant turns a garbled script by John Clafin and Daniel Zelman into a film that attempts to serve many masters but, in the end, pleases none.

As an adventure story, the film's action sequences range from the silly (characters get whacked in the head with shovels and frying pans without any long-lasting ill effects) to the uncomfortably graphic (one character is literally ripped to shreds by an exploding geyser of water).

Similarly, the film's bad guys run the gamut from buffoons to stone-cold killers.

What's it to be? An adventure story or a comedy? Tennant is never sure.

Then this "romance" between Tess and Finn keeps getting in the way of things. Compounding the problem is that McConaughey and Hudson, who seemed so perfect together in their last film, "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days," generate absolutely zero heat or believability as a couple in this film.

If anything, Tess and Finn have so little in common that audiences may wonder why they ever stayed together in the first place. Particularly since the film emphasizes that Tess is one of the movie's brightest characters, while Finn is easily one of the dumbest.

Other than being each other's (and possibly the audience's) favorite eye candy, Tess and Finn's attraction for one another is ephemeral at best. As actors who have shown that they play very well off each other, McConaughey and Hudson deserve better.

And so do most moviegoers.