Friday, June 02, 2017

Movie review - "Sandcastle" (2017) **

This starts off interestingly with Nicholas Hoult as a soldier in Iraq who deliberately injures his arm to get out of service. It's a scene I hadn't seen in an Iraq movie, especially from the protagonist, but it doesn't stop him from being assigned on The Mission, and things get pretty conventional after that.

I guess it's a bit different The Mission is to repair a well the Americas blew up. But the bulk of this felt very familiar. The natives are mostly hostile, some are friendly, the friendly ones suffer from helping the Americans, a couple of good men die, there's an end of second act death which prompts a kick arse mission, a bit of poignancy at the end.

It's all professionally done - production design, some decent action sequences, good photography, solid acting. It's just so familiar. Maybe if it had a really interesting character or situation - but the characters still feel to be along the old "newbie"/"tough sergeant" lines. Nicholas Hoult and Henry Cavill are in it.

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