Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

This movie is straightforward and honest, and avoids the clichés that ruin many other films about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.Rather than having an agenda of trying to convince us that "War is Hell" or "War is Glorious", it simply tells an interesting story of a group of soldiers who were trying to provide water for Iraqi civilians. The cast is very good, it was nice to see some new faces instead of overexposed, worn-out actors. The direction is proficient, the combat scenes are realistic and convincing.

Another Netflix original war drama film that tries to struck gold, as it did with the breathtaking "Beasts of No Nation", but sad to say it doesn't meet the same expectations."Sand Castle" takes the events of the Iraq War to more of a rehabilitation effort during the conflicts. It follows a platoon of soldiers who must restore the water system of a Iraqi village that was bombed by the same US Army. While the soldiers were doing damage control, the tension between them and the villagers is palpable and dangerous, put significantly on screen in great lengths by director Fernando Coimbra.This movie won't leave you thinking at the end of it nor will it be imprinted on your brain for time to come, but it's a very good approach to an Iraq War setting and from a point of view where the US army helps the native communities.

'SAND CASTLE': Three and a Half Stars (Out of Five)A war drama about a US Army rifleman, and his squad, who are trying to restore water to a dangerous Iraqi village. It's based on the real life experiences of it's screenwriter, Chris Roessner, and the script was featured on the 2012 Black List of unproduced screenplays. The film was directed by Fernando Coimbra, and it stars Nicholas Hoult, Logan Marshall-Green, Henry Cavill, Glen Powell, Tommy Flanagan, Beau Knapp and Neil Brown Jr.. It was released by Netflix through it's streaming site, and it's gotten mixed reviews from critics. I found it to be mostly well made, and somewhat effective, but it would have been a lot better with a little more character development. Private Matt Ocre (Hoult) is a young rifleman in the US Army, who enlisted (in 2001) in order to get financial aid for college. When the Iraq war starts (in 2003) he desperately wants to quit though. He slams the door of a Humvee on his hand, in an attempt to get sent home even. His efforts don't succeed, and he's instead sent to Baqubah, with his squad, to repair a broken water system there. Many of the locals don't want their help though, and Matt has to witness multiple casualties to his unit. This causes him great depression and frustration, naturally. The movie has all the makings of a good war film, it's well cast (Hoult, Marshall-Green and Cavill are all good in their roles) and it's nicely directed. It has well shot action scenes too, and seemingly effective emotional drama. I didn't know enough about the characters though, to really care for what they were going through. Technically the movie appears really well made, but it's just lacking enough character development to make it really effective.

Lots of war-type films have come out over the years, and most are OK to meh, but something about this one was done better than most. Aside from the exceptional directing by Fernando Coimbra, it's not like it had top actors in it, but his directing gave it a feel of a documentary/drama, and added interesting action and drama twist to it. Better than I expected, although slowly paced. It's a 7/10 from me