6 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
A small southwestern town sheriff finds a body in the desert with a suitcase and $500,000. He impersonates the man and stumbles into an FBI investigation.
Starring: Willem Dafoe, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Mickey Rourke, Samuel L. Jackson, M. Emmet WalshThriller | Insignificant |
Crime | Insignificant |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.36:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English, English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Spectacular Southwestern scenery is the backdrop for Director Roger Donaldson's (Cocktail, Cadillac Man) White Sands, a by-the-book Thriller that's in every way competently assembled but unable to distinguish itself from its peers. The film rarely breaks from convention, which includes set-up, the discovery phase, and the hectic climax that refuses to settle down and allow the viewer to catch up. Writer Daniel Pyne, who previously wrote for Miami Vice and the feature film Doc Hollywood and would go on to pen the screenplay for the critically acclaimed Any Given Sunday, introduces a number of details throughout the film and particularly at its end. It's difficult to follow and, frankly, difficult to care. The film exists in mediocrity and thrives on its takes on convention, yielding a predictably unpredictable series-of-events film that seems more concerned with building rather than resolving its narrative tentacles and multifaceted, yet still somehow generic, characters.
White Sands arrives on MOD (Manufactured on Demand) Blu-ray with a well-rounded 1080p transfer. The image appears true to its source, maintaining a light grain structure and suitable textural qualities. The picture is a little flat on the whole and lacking the sort of intimate, pristine definition of the finest sources and transfers, but viewers can expect to find quality textural clarity across the usual assortment of elements, including faces, clothes, and environments. There is some inherent softness in places, even near center-frame, but for the most part close-ups and many wider environments and vistas reveal adequate textural finesse. Colors can be similarly described, offering good foundational depth and detail but not particularly jumping off the screen. If anything the image appears ever so slightly faded. Skin tones and black levels are fine. The odd print speckle appears but no other source or encode flaws, minor or egregious, are apparent.
White Sands' DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack establishes a quality listening experience from the outset. The film opens with some airy music with a distinct and balanced low end in support. It's well spaced with an organic surround component that sets early expectations that the track fulfills throughout. Music maintains a similar approach for the duration, finding good general definition across a wide front end, integrating surround support as a balanced component and folding in a little low end content, too. Environmental details are likewise engaging with natural positioning around the listener as the situation warrants, which includes falling rain at the 50-minute mark or rodeo crowd and public address din about 10 minutes later. A few more intensive action effects are appropriately engaged with firm volume and definition as well as stage placement, though gunfire is a little crude and dull; soulless, one might say of it. Dialogue delivery is a strength, featuring firm front-center positioning. It's well prioritized and clarity is lifelike.
All that's included with this Blu-ray release of White Sands is the film's theatrical trailer (480i, 1.78:1, 1:48). No DVD or digital copies are included. This release does not ship with a slipcover.
White Sands crafts a capable Thriller at its baseline but cannot elevate convoluted material to anything resembling cohesion. Dafoe and an impressive roster of support stars do what they can with a jumble of a script, but the talented cast is left with little opportunity to chew on dramatic red meat. The film is both simply plotted and frustratingly unable to hold itself together, beginning strongly and devolving into a morass of plot details and character turns that Donaldson and company cannot sort out to satisfaction. It's certainly watchable, though. Sony's nearly featureless Blu-ray delivers solid enough video and audio. For fans only.
Limited Edition to 3000 - SOLD OUT
1997
Limited Edition to 3000
1987
2011
2014
1959
1976
2015
1966
1974
1991
2012
1996
2009
Autostop rosso sangue
1977
1981
Standard Edition | Cinématographe
1993
1972
Unrated Edition
1998
2007
2002