Review of Sand Castle (2017) by Mohammed A — 27 Apr 2017

With so many war films coming out over the last few years, especially based in either Iraq or Afghanistan, it's hard to standout from the crowd. Sand Castle is one of those films that does nothing that hasn't been done dozens of time before and what it does do, it doesn't do very well.

The plot follows Private Ocre (Nicholas Hoult) and his troop as they try to rebuild a water pump in Iraq. Not all of the locals are welcoming to the American troops so trouble punctuates their efforts up until the less than dramatic finale. The paint by numbers story line might not have been an issue if the characters were interesting but as with everything else in this film, they are so generic and flat that there is no emotional impact when something happens to them.

Sand Castle isn't a bad film as such, it's just rather dull and forgettable.