Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Jenni Devyn Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

SnoopyStyle Deputy Sheriff Ray Dolezal (Willem Dafoe) investigates a dead body with a suitcase full of money found in the middle of the desert. Medical examiner Bert Gibson (M. Emmet Walsh) finds a phone number on a piece of paper swallowed by the dead man. He goes to a meeting where the money is taken and a meeting with Gorman Lennox (Mickey Rourke) is set up. FBI agent Greg Meeker (Samuel L. Jackson) tells him that it was an undercover FBI operation. They want their half million dollars back. FBI Agent Flynn (James Rebhorn) is also chasing after the money claiming a rogue element stole it from a court case. Dolezal meets the underworld partner Lennox and then Lane Bodine (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) who knew the dead man, Bob Spencer. At White Sands, Dolezal and Lennox are shown state-of-the-art weapons.It's an overly complicated hard-boiled police undercover investigation. There are a lot of annoying little problems. Dolezal is careless with a half million dollars evidence. There is no way a non-idiot police detective would walk out with that much money and no back-up. Once it's taken, there's no reason for the bad guys to return it in one of the silliest request. I also really need somebody to call FBI headquarters to check on some of these agents popping up demanding their money back. It's simply bad writing and doesn't survive in-depth examination. The first class actors try to make the material work as best they can.

AaronCapenBanner Roger Donaldson directed this undercover police thriller as small town southwest deputy sheriff Ray Dolezal(played by Willem Dafoe) finds a body in the desert with a suitcase full of cash, and no idea how or why it got there. Ray then goes to the extraordinary length of taking on the identity of the dead man in order to get to the bottom of the matter, and finds himself involved with rogue agents of the FBI(Samuel Jackson) & CIA(Mickey Rourke), and also involved with a beautiful woman philanthropist(played by Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), despite being happily married... Mediocre film has a good cast and director but an unconvincing and convoluted story that leaves the viewer unsatisfied.

merklekranz Trying to figure out "White Sands" is like trying to put together a jigsaw puzzle with quite a few missing pieces. This overcomplicated movie challenges the viewer's understanding way too much, and eventually you will lose interest. It really is a shame because the cast gives their best effort with what is a severely disjointed script. Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and the blue Corvette are easy on the eyes, but it's not enough to maintain momentum, and the whole thing derails twenty minutes in and never recovers. True there are a few strong scenes, but a plethora of dead material is unfortunately connecting them. Not recommended. - MERK

Critical Eye UK Pity the screenwriter who thinks high concept is merely about starting with an ending and working backwards.Pity this one in particular, saddled with a visual of a man running with a suitcase of white sand across white sands.Then pity any audience asked to watch what the screenwriter comes up with by way of a beginning and middle bit to precede the running man with the sand on the sand.(Might also be worth sparing a thought for what passes as local law enforcement in this movie, where the Deputy Sheriff vanishes without a word of explanation to his superiors -- and his superiors, even after several days, can't even arouse sufficient interest to find out where he's gone.)Puerile: a fine example of how a back-of-the-envelope script pitch can turn, if not to sand, then certainly dust.