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Apr 21, 2017 · Ultimately, the biggest problems with “Sand Castle” are familiarity and form (or lack thereof). As for the first, we’ve seen this story before, at least a dozen times. Sure, the particulars are different, but the futility of war, especially in the 21 st century, has been well documented.
Rated: 3.5/5 Aug 12, 2019 Full Review Josh Lasser IGN Movies Sand Castle is a movie full of tension and fear and which makes sure the audience is right there with the soldiers throughout.
- (89)
- Fernando Coimbra
- TVMA
- Nicholas Hoult
Apr 21, 2017 · Sand Castle: Directed by Fernando Coimbra. With Henry Cavill, Glen Powell, Nicholas Hoult, Tommy Flanagan. The story follows a young soldier, and his introduction into the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Based on true events, it bears witness to the destruction and horrors of war.
- (26K)
- Fernando Coimbra
- TV-MA
- Action, Drama, War
An engaging, gripping fact-based drama starring Nicholas Hoult (Mad Max: Fury Road) as a young machine gunner in the U.S. Marines whose platoon is put in the impossible position of saving an Iraqi...
- A thoughtful look at war.
- Sand Castle
- Verdict
By Josh Lasser
Updated: Apr 22, 2017 4:11 pm
Posted: Apr 22, 2017 3:53 pm
At the outset of Fernando Coimbra's Sand Castle, now streaming on Netflix, the young soldier played by Nicholas Hoult makes it clear that although he signed up to be in the reserves, he hadn't really been prepared to be in a war; instead he just wanted the money that being in the reserves offered for college. Then 9/11 happened, the world changed, and he had to fight.
It is a smart, touching, and slightly bloody start to a war movie, one that takes the audience with Private Matt Ocre (Hoult) and his fellow squad mates into Iraq as they attempt to win over the hearts and minds of a town by restoring the flow of water. And, just as with the start of the movie, the rest of it is smart, touching, and slightly bloody.
What impresses about Sand Castle is not the generalities of the tale—movies about wars in the Middle East and even this particular war in Iraq have been made before—but rather the fact that, unlike so many other films, this one doesn't give a strong pro- or anti-war message. It is instead very concerned with offering up to the audience a look at the difficulties the soldiers and the people of Iraq face during the war.
Even so, without the other soldiers in the group being as well defined, the audience ends up feeling less for their plight than it does for the people at a local school who desperately need the water the soldiers are bringing into town via tanker truck. One of the most intriguing characters whose surface is only ever scratched is Captain Syverson (Henry Cavill), a member of the Special Forces group with which Harper and his squad are staying.
Watching the soldiers distribute water to the people in Sand Castle, as with much of what takes place, is a tension-filled experience, and director Fernando Coimbra handles the moments quite well. This is a war movie, these guys are in a place where some of the locals don't want them, there are armed and dangerous people around, and it is clear that at some point in the movie someone is going to start shooting. Coimbra makes this tension palpable and the soldiers' fear of it real. One or two moments of heavy-handedness exist here, with the audience aware well before the soldiers are that something bad is going to happen. Excluding those few moments the rest of it works wonderfully and sharpen the film measurably.
Perhaps it is a sign of the times we live in that it is surprising when a movie about the U.S. fighting in the Middle East doesn't unabashedly espouse a single political view, but Sand Castle is just such a film. It isn't without messages, but they seem to exist on both sides as a part of a larger tapestry. This is a work which offers up triumphs a...
On Rotten Tomatoes, Sand Castle has an approval rating of 47% based on 17 reviews, with an average rating of 5.3/10. On Metacritic , the film has a score 45 out of 100, based on 7 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
Sand Castle is not an easy film to review in terms of gauging it against other high adrenaline, fast paced, action filled war movies. That is not to say the film was not worth watching. It certainly is. Avoiding any spoilers here, the story moves at a rather slow pace for a war film but has a definite message to deliver and does so with finesse ...
