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Sand Castle

TV-MA 2017 1h 53m War Drama TRAILER for List
47% Tomatometer 17 Reviews 47% Popcornmeter 500+ Ratings
An inexperienced American private discovers the true cost of war when his unit is sent on a dangerous mission to repair a water pumping station in a rural Iraqi village.
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Sand Castle

Critics Reviews

View All (17) Critics Reviews
John Nugent Empire Magazine Sand Castle does a respectable job of depicting a wretched conflict that none of its participants wanted, but its reason for being feels a little built on sand. Rated: 3/5 Apr 23, 2017 Full Review Tirdad Derakhshani Philadelphia Inquirer 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 village. Apr 21, 2017 Full Review Brian Tallerico RogerEbert.com Offers too little to the War is Hell genre to be noteworthy. Rated: 1.5/4 Apr 21, 2017 Full Review Allison Rose FlickDirect While the material isn't necessarily anything new - I thought the movie presented a slightly more interesting view of what when on there. 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. Rated: 8.0/10 May 4, 2017 Full Review Renee Schonfeld Common Sense Media Humanistic look at Iraq war; violent battles, cursing. Rated: 3/5 May 2, 2017 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (91) audience reviews
Roux M I am an infantry veteran, and as a queer grunt who served under DADT, Hoult’s alienated civil affairs private resonated with me in a lot of ways. I served in the Surge era infantry and the futility of what we were doing hit me early on. I saw many of the people I served alongside in this movie; to those criticizing the juvenile behavior of these troops, this is what your warfighters were back then. A bunch of scared 18-24 year olds fighting phantom bandits with no measurable positive result, encouraging each other with false bravado and the pent up sexuality of an all-male unit. It wasn’t the most comfortable culture as a queer vet forced to hide who I was so I could stay on the job (which damaged unit cohesion, good riddance to DADT), and I empathized a lot with Hoult’s character sitting half in, half out of belonging by the end. You develop a desire to support and protect your friends and complete the mission, and that competes with your desire not to die for nothing in some godforsaken desert trying to drive a tanker full of water on a dirt road to nowhere. There are a large number of kids that bled and died over there, and for many of us who lived on, this movie reminds us we have a duty to do more to remember our battle buddies than just living with their ghosts; we have to tell their stories, big and small, and sustain each other in that mission. It’s been 13 years since I got out of the Army; I am the last one in my first squad left alive, and one of only 3 in the second, including the loss of both squad leaders. Most of those veterans died by their own hand. Please, if you are a vet in crisis, call somebody you served with, no matter how long you have gone without talking. The majority of my ghosts ended themselves in a hasty moment without trying to reach out and we all deserve so much better than that. It’s up to us to keep the memories of the ones that didn’t make it alive. We have a sacred obligation to support one another and honor those who could no longer shoulder the weight. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 09/22/24 Full Review Johannes S I can't build up a connection to any character whatsoever and the story is also a bit whacky, which makes the movie feel soulless. Most "action" scenes are just a front shot of an Army soldier shooting. To give them a bit of credit, some visuals and special effects are good. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 08/16/24 Full Review Andrew U I don’t know if it was laziness or lack of budget or what, but there were so many details wrong in the first 5 minutes of this movie that I had to stop watching. One of the first major dialogue scenes starts off with a model of tank (M-47 or maybe an M-48) that was out of service with the US decades before the time when this movie is supposed to take place, then goes on to do a wide view shot still showing those same outrageously obsolete tanks next to MRAPs (they look like Force Protection 6x6 Cougars?) that didn’t exist in theater until a year and a half AFTER this movie is supposed to take place and even then they were only used by the Marine Corps, and weren’t even ordered by the Army until 2005. The worst part about the opening 5 minutes? They had the balls to refer to those massively outdated tanks as “Abrams” when they very clearly look nothing like Abrams. So we have tanks that haven’t been in service since the 1980’s (at best) next to MRAPs that didn’t even exist yet. Maybe I’m just too much of a stickler, but when you’re a vet of the war supposedly being portrayed and producers can’t even be bothered to get simple things like vehicles even close to right, it makes it hard to take anything about the movie seriously. It gets two stars because the acting and dialogue in the first 5 minutes I did watch wasn’t awful and was somewhat realistic. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 08/15/24 Full Review Michael M Just another Netflix garbage movie. You've got to love those door-less humvee's with fully armored turrets. I mean why even bother armoring them if you can just shoot the guys legs through the open door. Should have just dropped Cavill, who seems pointless in this, and used the money you saved for some lore accurate vehicles and a better scriptwriter. Ugg Rated 1 out of 5 stars 10/03/23 Full Review Audience Member Platoon it was not but enjoyable just the same. A different side of war was shown with no discernible single hero. Worth watching- don’t listen to the negative reviews. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 07/15/23 Full Review NEMXA R Um I still don't get the idea of his story I've been in military n main guy just doesn't make sense. To sum it up they need to fix water pipes could make puns n bad pick up lines but won't. They don't know how to fix water so go on a walk about the end. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 07/07/23 Full Review Read all reviews
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Sand Castle

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Movie Info

Synopsis An inexperienced American private discovers the true cost of war when his unit is sent on a dangerous mission to repair a water pumping station in a rural Iraqi village.
Director
Fernando Coimbra
Producer
Mark Gordon, Justin Nappi, Ben Pugh
Screenwriter
Chris Roessner
Production Co
The Mark Gordon Company, International Traders, Treehouse Pictures
Rating
TV-MA
Genre
War, Drama
Original Language
English
Release Date (Streaming)
May 23, 2017
Runtime
1h 53m
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