Sand Castle (film): Decent, but it moves really slow
Based on the true story of his time in Iraq, Chris Roessner's Sand Castle is a reasonably entertaining ride but unfortunately is plagued with being a bit boring.
source
The story follows the main character Matt Ocre, an Army reservist who hadn't intended to see actual combat and joined the reserves only to get the college money. He is forced to "grow up" rather rapidly as his team encounters far more trouble than they had anticipated and it is my understanding that this is how war works a lot of the time.
I realize that war films can't all be action action action, especially when they are based on actual events, but Sand Castle, while a compelling story that shows the extreme frustration that was the daily experience of soldiers in Iraq has an awful lot of dead space. Basically like 60% of the film could have been eliminated and the same story would be told.
source
This is the problem with a plethora of films out there. It has been determined by the movie gods that all films need to be 90 to 120 minutes long and they will stick to that format no matter what! Whether or not there is enough actual material to fill that time space doesn't seem to matter a great deal. The screenplay actually was on a list of unproduced films since 2012 and I guess someone got bored one day in 2017 and thought... "i guess i'll do that movie.... got nothing else to do."
I did appreciate the fact that this film shows battles far more realistically than say, something with the Rock starring in it. Situations where a vast majority of the shots fired by both sides don't actually hit anyone, and it is actually very difficult to spot who is shooting at you. I have never been in battle, but I do go to gun ranges and can attest to the fact that it is actually very difficult to hit a target, especially if it is moving.
So I liked parts of this film but for the most part a whole lotta nothin happens in this film and I found myself screwing around on my phone during most of it. While not terrible, this movie loses a lot of points in my book by simply being too long.
On the scale of "Urgh" to "Wowsers" I give Sand Castle the overall score of.....
I feel like a lot of people find themselves in that situation. Have you ever seen the comedy movie with Pauly Shore called In the Army Now? I think that was the name anyway. I have personally heard stories of recruiters promising the world only for the people to find that isn't the case after they have signed the papers. I applaud those who know what they are getting into and go all in.
Nice review my friend. Just glad you warned me, I can't stand slow moving films. I've got the attention span of a goldfish!
Though I really find war movie interesting but I think this particular movie have a special story.