Blood, Sand and Gold is my latest review. What, no sweat and tears? Anyway, "Sand" doesn't have a MPAA rating but I'll go with a standard R. There are a few F-words, a cold-blooded murder involving a tied up escort, and a couple of other nasty kills. Just think of Blood, Sand and Gold as Raiders of the Lost Ark meets National Treasure. Now take away any excitement or verve that those movies hastily possessed.Blood, Sand and Gold is your typical, slick Redbox endeavor. It has lots of glossy locations (Canary Islands, Dubai, Belgium, and Hong Kong to name a few), a no-name cast, a familiar movie poster (similar to Extraction, Arsenal, or Sicario), and a rookie director in 27-year- old Gaelan Connell. Released only in New York City, "Sand" is a globetrotting affair that feels surprisingly grounded. It obviously has a budget but I doubt it will break even on said budget.With its minimal images of wealthy relics and its lack of insightful treasure speak, Blood, Sand and Gold still comes off like the cinematic poster child for modern day archaeology. It stars Monica West and Aaron Costa Ganis. West looks like a cross between Judy Greer and Tilda Swinton. Sadly, Ganis looks like the B-list version of Gerard Butler. Together, Ganis and West's characters (Jack Riordan and Mave Adams) travel the globe in search of priceless, 15th century artifacts needed for a salvage company. On their journey, they involve themselves in deeper territory as conspiracies about stolen treasures begin to surface.In regards to the overall effect of Blood, Sand and Gold, watch for middling acting, ludicrous shootout sequences, and laughable fistfights that seem to be forced and used just for filler (that way "Sand" can safely say it's an action film). There's a car chase where a woman who's never shot a gun before, kills about three bad guys without missing once. There's also a scene in which an elderly dame (maybe in her 70's) turns all antagonistic and fires an AK-47. Finally, you have a romantic subplot between Riordan and Adams that lasts for about five minutes. It involves the French language and conversations about screwing on a table. Gag me.As for the look of Blood, Sand and Gold, well it's not half bad. Cinematographer Chloe H. Walker provides mountainous landscapes, shots of gleaming deserts, and twinkling city skylines. However, the performances in "Sand" are so lackluster (the troupers either overact or seem wooden) that Walker's keen eye just becomes prepossessing, empty background. What a shame.In conclusion, Blood, Sand and Gold is filmmaking water mold. Gaelan Connell's direction on it lacks a sense of coherent locality. The actors go from country to country and with each frame, "Sand" feels like its solely edited on the fly (that can't be good). All in all, it's best to just skip Blood, Sand and Gold unless it's the last movie left on Earth. Then, you should only see it once. Rating: 1 and a half stars.

Even though I really wanted this movie to be my cup of tea, which it could have been if they would have used a tripod and would have taken the time to do a bit of decent casting, it turned out to be everything but that. I'm not saying all actors are bad in this movie, but there are quite a few cringe worthy moments. There's a Dutch speaking guy that can't even manage to get the grammar right. Shaky cam -at times- is so bad, that even slowly walking people are (partially) out of the frame. Drunk filming might be fun to do, but the result is no fun to watch. To be fair, the sound is okay though. It feels like most of the budget was spent on sound and music.All in all I can't say that I enjoyed this film and I cannot agree with those who claim it's 'the future of action movies'. And if it turns out to be just that, it's a sad future indeed.I didn't make it to the end, so maybe there's some great stuff that I've missed, but that's a chance I'm willing to take..

Do yourself a favor and buy this movie right now. Not only is it a ton of fun to watch, but it's also the future of movie making. For less than $275k, director Gaelan Connell has made a epic action movie that gives most any Hollywood blockbuster a run for it's money. Sure, the script has a few cheesy lines, (it is an action movie after all), and none of the actors (all relatively unknowns) deliver a performance quite as memorable as, say, Heath Ledger did as the Joker. But this movie was shot for a fraction of the budget of any Hollywood blockbuster and is honestly almost as good. The Dark Knight cost $180 million to make. Blood, Sand, and Gold literally cost 0.1% percent of that to make. Not one percent. POINT one percent! And here is the crazy thing: You really wouldn't know it was made for so little by watching it. The action sequences are top notch, the locations are exotic, and the pacing is superb. There are car chases, foot pursuits, exploding trucks, helicopters, grenade launchers, machine guns, luxury cars, and a seriously big tiger! Part of what makes the movie so exciting is that Mr. Connell and his crew didn't rely on special effects during any of the movie's many action scenes. When one of the bad guys gets chased straight off the roof of a building, the stunt guy really does go crashing into the hood of the car parked below. Metal bends, the windshield shatters, and you completely forget that you are just watching a movie. When the fuel tank on an SUV ruptures after a car chase in the desert, you watch as it actually blows up! There is no CGI or digital touch up, just one massive fireball as the SUV explodes into gnarl of twisted char. It is gritty and real and absolutely exhilarating to watch. If I were a Hollywood producer I would be terrified of Gaelan Connell. With Blood, Sand, and Gold, he just proved that with enough raw talent and ambition you can make a full-length, blockbuster quality action movie for about the same amount of money that Christopher Nolan spent on just 30 seconds of the Dark Knight. This is the future of film making!

The movie starts surprisingly well. The locations they have shot at are gorgeous, but the dialogue delivery is bad, none of the actors can act, and despite the film being a good one time watch, the climax is predictable. full review https://alittleofallblog.wordpress.com/2017/03/10/blood- sand-gold-movie/