This movie wasn't actually so bad. A little bit put-up, not some great love story or stupid American action Rambo style, but it was realistic. Well, that's what one brother should do after some ugly nasty scums tried to ape his sister. I expected worse, so this movie is something I don't regret I watched. Norman Reedus played absolutely professional and I have no remarks to his part. Too many talking between the dad and the guy with the black jacket, too many similar scenes, not enough playing by Tylor, who was supposed to be the main character in this movie. Well, I am glad he didn't played much, he was too spineless. But I have to say I think that was a good movie. Much better than The Beanicks, Beat or Dark Harbor. I'd like to watch it again with a better quality and a beer ;)

"Sand" is a pretty bad movie. I won't waste your time with too much information. The only reason it gets 5 out of ten from me is Kari Wuhrer. God, what a babe! Her opening scene, where she's reunited with her brother Jack on the beach and meets Ty for the 1st time, is prefect. Its beautifully played and is by far the best scene in the movie, for this alone I like it. Unfortunately the movie just stinks. The language is really offensive, I don't mean simply profanity, I mean offensive. Still it might be fun for some to see Lovitz playing married with Julie Delpy and Denis Leary just being around for no good reason. There is some nice music and some nice opening beach shots of Ty as a kid with his Mom. Still "Sand" sinks rather quickly into a montage and want to be Greek tragedy. But again Kari on the beach... Sigh..

Matt Palmieri must go to a lot of Hollywood parties or be connected to somebody cool enough to line up this many b-list celebrity performers in one certifiably awful film. Is this a case of "paycheck time" or a case of "Hey, Harry Dean Stanton agreed to do it, why not join the party?" Maybe they all have the same agent who got a call asking for the whole group to do either 'The Surreal Life' or appear in this film. Either way, it's still Surreal Life. Stanton, Denis Leary, Jon Lovitz, Julie Delpy, Kari Wuhrer and Emilio Estevez...... what, no Janice Dickinson or Verne Troyer? Oops, this was made in pre-Surreal Life 1999 and only surfaced recently... like the bones of a corpse washing ashore. My mistake. And anyone else's mistake for watching this. Even back in 1999 the Tarantino copycats had worn out their welcome, but this flimsy tripe is more of a fifth generation carbon copy of a Tarantino rip-off. And even if you watch it for the interesting cast you get cheated. Sure, you get Leary phoning in his usual acerbic performance, but his lines are mostly weak. Then there is Stanton who has ONE scene, and Lovitz, Delpy and Estevez who have little more than that. These should really be uncredited "guest" performances but they're featured prominently on the video cover. The real stars are Vartan, Wuhrer and a bunch of other young actors who mostly posture and yell at each other virtually nose to nose throughout. It's the old game of covering weak dialogue by having the actors shout rather than speak. Ooh, the intensity. And the storyline is so wrong-headed that it seems to flow like a dream spun by idiots. No example of this is more telling than the endless back and forth battle between the low-life brothers and the surfer dudes--the surfers apparently believing, not once, not twice, but even three times, that their besting of low-lifes with GUNS (yet not relieving said low-lifes of their weapons) means the scumbags have learned their lesson and will not RETURN with their GUNS. Oh, why go on...this film is junk and leave it at that.

****SPOILERS**** The Briggs family coming together for the first time in over 20 years to attend the funeral and have the will of the mother Marina, Kayle Martin, read is a very uneasy experience for Tyler, Michael Vartan. Having been abandoned by his father Gus, Marshall Bell, when he was an infant Tyler grew up only with his mother Marina and felt no real ties to Gus or his two step-brothers Barker & Hardy,Rodney Eastman & John Hawkes. Who were not only beer guzzling coke heads but also very ill-mannered and an embarrassment to him every time he was with them.Tyler also wasn't too fond of Gus's good friend and travel companion "Boston" Teddy, Denis Leary. Who's obsession with the Kennedy clan of Hyannis-Port MA. as well as John F. Kennedy's sexual exploits, in and out of the White House that even at times got to Gus. Marina left her son Tyler everything that she had but Tyler in a show of good faith only took the White 1972 Ford LTD and a photo album and left everything else, the house and $6,000.00, to his father Gus. Tyler then took off for the coast to where Marina was born and raised to get away from the "Family" and have some very needed peace and quite. Striking up a friendship with Jack, Norman Reedus, and his friends Max Andy & Trip, Bodhi Elfman Powers Simmons & Emilio Estevez, a bunch of local beach boys Tyler got to stay at the Higgins home on the beach as a handyman. It there that he met and fell in love with Jack's sister Sandy, Kari Wuhrer, who just came home for the summer from school.Life was good for Tyler with a sweet and loving girlfriend and new set of friends a job and a place to live until one morning "They" came to town, Gus Teddy Baker & Hardy, and everything went downhill after that. Drinking beer and hard booze as well as smoking pot and snorting coke the quartet, mostly Baker & Hardy, made life miserable not only for Tyler but everyone else in town. The brothers finding Sandy alone in the Higgins house, where Tyler was living in, tried to rape her only to be stopped by Gus & Teddy. When Sandy's brother Jack found out that those who tried to rape his sister were Tyler's step-brothers Baker & Hardy he and some of his friends went to the motel where they stayed with Gus & Teddy. Finding them drunk and stoned on coke Jack worked them over leaving them black and blue and out cold. This led to Baker and Hardy the next day attacking Jack who was alone on the beach and just when they were about to kill him they got the stuffings knocked out them by Jack's friend Trip with his homemade baseball bat.Planing to get even with Jack for what happened to them on the beach, for some reason they weren't interested or couldn't find Trip, Baker & Hardy kidnapped and tortured Jack's friend Max. Jack and his friend Andy tried to come to his rescue only to be kidnapped themselves by the brothers and forced to walk the plank on the pier by the Pacific Ocean. Jack & Andy turned the tables on the duo by fighting them off and having all four of them fall down into the water. Baker & Hardy being drunk and on drugs and also not knowing how to swim drowned. The brothers father angered at what happened to them goes out, against Teddy's advice, looking for Jack only to have Jack show up outside his motel room, with Sandy trying to stop him, and rubbed it in about what happened to Gus' sons! Which was really stupid as well as dangerous on Jack's part. Gus chasing both Jack and Sandy down to the beach and hitting Jack with a bullet from his gun in the leg is then finally tackled by Tyler who puts some sense into his head. Telling Gus that killing Jack won't bring Baker & Hardy back but only destroy his life as well. Interesting little movie that tries to make a point and does about life love hate revenge and finally acceptance. The film will never make the IMDb top 250 but at the same time "Sand" will never make the IMDb bottom 100 either.