Sand Castle

Name: Sand Castle
Genre: Drama, War
Released: April 21, 2017
Duration: 113 min
Rating: 45
Cast: Beau Knapp, Glen Powell, Henry Cavill, Logan Marshall-Green, Neil Brown Jr.

2017

METASCORE

Mixed or average reviews based on 7 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 20 Ratings

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6.5

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6.5	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 20 Ratings

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Movie Details & Credits

Netflix | Release Date (Streaming): April 21, 2017 | TV-MA

Starring: Beau Knapp, Glen Powell, Henry Cavill, Logan Marshall-Green, Neil Brown Jr., Nicholas Hoult, Sam Spruell

Summary: Set in Iraq in 2003, Sand Castle follows a group of American soldiers in the early days of the second Gulf War. Bearing witness to the heat and the horror is the inexperienced Private Matt Ocre (Nicholas Hoult), who, together with several fellow soldiers, is ordered to the outskirts of Baqubah to repair a water pumping station damaged bySet in Iraq in 2003, Sand Castle follows a group of American soldiers in the early days of the second Gulf War. Bearing witness to the heat and the horror is the inexperienced Private Matt Ocre (Nicholas Hoult), who, together with several fellow soldiers, is ordered to the outskirts of Baqubah to repair a water pumping station damaged by U.S. bombs. But, as Ocre discovers, in an atmosphere where resentment and anger fester, trying to win the hearts and minds of the locals is a task fraught with danger. It’s here, in the streets, squares and schools that he discovers the true cost of war. [Netflix]… Expand

Director: Fernando Coimbra

Genre(s): Drama, War

Rating: TV-MA

Runtime: 113 min

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Awards & Rankings

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Critic Reviews

The Film Stage Jared Mobarak

Apr 26, 2017

Roessner hasn’t written an anti-war or pro-war film. Sand Castle merely shows the honesty of war’s infinite complexities. Read full review

John Nugent

Apr 24, 2017

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. Read full review

Ignatiy Vishnevetsky

Apr 18, 2017

It’s a stale, phony, grunt-level sort of view of American intervention, cast in large part with Brits and shot in the familiar desert backlots of Jordan, which has stood in for the site of one Middle Eastern conflict after another since "Lawrence Of Arabia." Read full review

Movie Nation Roger Moore

Apr 18, 2017

A combat movie that’s as generic as they come. Read full review

Matt Donato

Apr 20, 2017

Sand Castle is an Iraq war story about certain futility, but there's a certain redundancy to political overtones that preach what we've been hearing all along. Read full review

Derek Smith

Apr 17, 2017

Unwittingly perhaps, the film reveals itself as a microcosm of America's foreign policy in the Middle East. Read full review

RogerEbert.com Brian Tallerico

Apr 21, 2017

Fernando Coimbra’s Sand Castle offers too little to the War is Hell genre to be noteworthy. Read full review

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User Reviews

Strahlemann

Jun 27, 2020

It's maybe the best war-movie I've seen yet.
Good Charakters
Much Action
Good sense for military scenes
A interesting grounded story
...
But most important well made military action

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

PauloDundee

Aug 5, 2017

Touching micro-pic about one incident of war and its collateral damage. Very well acted within convincing, authentic locations. When reality strikes, it wakes you up, doesn't it?

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

rmaynardjr

Aug 14, 2017

Sand Castle is built for a specific and narrow audience, but to that audience, it's a cut above the average war film. Its dark, gritty tone, gorgeous locations, and propensity for authenticity give it a high replay value and striking effect on the viewer.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

sanchopancho

May 18, 2017

Good solid war movie about the futility of it all. It doesn't bring anything new to the table but the film's focus is sharp and the story engaging. I feel the critics' reviews are a bit harsh on this one. I'm glad I watched it.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

3ebfan511

May 15, 2017

This is not a typical shoot-em-up war film. You might see more action in a documentary actually. But I like that it was written by a guy who actually served there so its true to what probably happened. (That in some people's cases it was not all shooting and excitement 24/7 but sometimesThis is not a typical shoot-em-up war film. You might see more action in a documentary actually. But I like that it was written by a guy who actually served there so its true to what probably happened. (That in some people's cases it was not all shooting and excitement 24/7 but sometimes other...more boring tasks like helping Iraqi's rebuild stuff etc.) There IS a fair amount of action though, its just not done with a big enough budget to be anything that great. Its really more about the characters reactions to their predicament and just telling a story of what life was like there for an "average" soldier. Overall it was a "good" but not great war film. (I think the budget was so low that during 1 scene they could not even show a large enough location to show who he was shooting at so you just see a close-up of a guy shooting his gun at something, but you never see at what. It takes you out of the action as you can't see whats going on in the battle like most films would show and you end up a little bored just staring at a guy shooting a gun from the same spot for 2 minutes.) That was really the biggest negative I can give it though. Otherwise it did have some good action at times and the overall story was good and there are a lot of quality supporting actors in the film that help it as well.… Expand

1 of 2 users found this helpful11

iCronic

Aug 9, 2017

Sand Castle is not terrible just filled with cliches. Netflix still can't do movies, one thing they should figure out in the future

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

SquaredRen

Apr 22, 2017

Some actors here aren't that good. The main character is bland. The shooting scenes are boring, the plot is hopeless & boring for a war movie. It drags a little bit and that's bad for an already mentioned boring film, with boring shootings, & boring main plot.

0 of 2 users found this helpful02

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