X
  • 2017
  • TV-MA
  • Netflix
  • 1 h 53 m
  • 2017
  • TV-MA
  • Netflix
  • 1 h 53 m

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 by...

Directed By: Fernando Coimbra

Written By: Chris Roessner

  • 2017
  • TV-MA
  • Netflix
  • 1 h 53 m
  • 2017
  • TV-MA
  • Netflix
  • 1 h 53 m

Sand Castle

Metascore Mixed or Average Based on 7 Critic Reviews
45
User Score Generally Favorable Based on 27 User Ratings
6.2
My Score
Hover and click to give a rating Saved

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 by...

Directed By: Fernando Coimbra

Written By: Chris Roessner

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Critic Reviews

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Metascore
Mixed or Average Based on 7 Critic Reviews
45
14% Positive
1 Review
57% Mixed
4 Reviews
29% Negative
2 Reviews

  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews

Critic Reviews

 View All
Metascore
Mixed or Average Based on 7 Critic Reviews
45
14% Positive
1 Review
57% Mixed
4 Reviews
29% Negative
2 Reviews

  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews
67
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.
By Jared Mobarak FULL REVIEW
60
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.
FULL REVIEW

User Reviews

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User Score
Generally Favorable Based on 27 User Ratings
6.2
44% Positive
12 Ratings
44% Mixed
12 Ratings
11% Negative
3 Ratings

  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews

User Reviews

 View All
User Score
Generally Favorable Based on 27 User Ratings
6.2
44% Positive
12 Ratings
44% Mixed
12 Ratings
11% Negative
3 Ratings

  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews
10
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
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10
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?
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50
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.
By Matt Donato FULL REVIEW
50
Apr 18, 2017
A combat movie that’s as generic as they come.
By Roger Moore FULL REVIEW
50
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."
By Ignatiy Vishnevetsky FULL REVIEW
38
Apr 21, 2017
Fernando Coimbra’s Sand Castle offers too little to the War is Hell genre to be noteworthy.
By Brian Tallerico FULL REVIEW
38
Apr 17, 2017
Unwittingly perhaps, the film reveals itself as a microcosm of America's foreign policy in the Middle East.
FULL REVIEW
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8
Vadertime
Mar 7, 2022
I enjoyed this movie. Until this movie, I never liked Logan Marshall-Green, but he was very good in this story. Nicholas Hoult of X-men fame is also very good. A good depiction of a no-win situation in Afghanistan.
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4
Vic21772
May 16, 2023
It's not a true story!!! No reserve or national guard units, not to mention Special Forces at Camp Warhorse in 2003! Camp Warhorse is named after Warhorse Brigade in the 4th Infantry Division. It was a small Iraqi Air field before the invasion. My tank crew and I (C-32 Coldsteel) were the first vehicle to bust through the gate when we took it over in 2003! No water pump or water issues in Ba'Qubah, diyala river no lake, drove over the bridge every 2 days!!! Guarded a hospital, radio tower, a couple chicken farms, and destroyed alot of munitions. Not sure where the ideas came from or where this story happened but it wasn't Ba'Qubah in 2003! I did however get a good chuckle out of the movie, and I think anyone who was there during that time will. But still an OK watch.
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4
CNJones2448
Apr 8, 2022
Poorly directed film. Been done so many times, enough is enough. This film never really takes off in the sense that makes it worthwhile watching. I have read that it is a true story, and if it was directed better, with more passion and, a longer story that had been weaved together more smoothly. It would have been a great film. Several of the actors are much better than they were in this film. They were directed horribly.
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4
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
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3
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.
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Details

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Production Company The Mark Gordon Company, Treehouse Pictures, International Traders, Zaman Productions
Release Date Apr 21, 2017
Duration 1 h 53 m
Rating TV-MA
Genres
Tagline Home is a war away
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