White Sands

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.

source: White Sands

At the time this was released, no-one knew who Sam Jackson was, but now his presence gives the film the balance needed. We know Jackson. We know the kind of mean sh*t that goes down. Dafoe is the sheriff who gets involved in Jackson's plot to catch baddie arms dealer Rourke. Dafoe has to pretend to be a dead man (Rourke doesn't know about the death). The two become friendly as Dafoe is slowly sucked into his world. The last 30 minutes is possibly the most exciting stuff I've seen, filmed in the 'White Sands' of the desert, jackson running for his life with a briefcase containing money- or so he thinks. Rourke turns out to be a CIA operative, which was a little bit unnecessary, and Dafoe perhaps is too smug in his capture of Jackson- but it all adds to the fun. Look out for a young Mimi Rogers and a very young Maura Tierney, who doesn't last long when the bad guy gets wind she's in the area. Those looking for a link between Rourke's pretty boy 80s persona and his current battered hardman image will find it here. Don't know why he decided to give it all up after this, it's exceptional.

Roger Donaldson's White Sands is a nice, picturesque piece of early 90's noir escapism. It's set in the vast expanse of the white gypsum deserts of New Mexico, where it gets its title from. The film makes use of numerous chopper shots to illustrate the landscape nicely, set to an appropriately synthy, ambient score. Willem Dafoe, in a rare lead role, is excellent as small town sheriff Ray Dolezal, who stumbles upon a murdered FBI agent in the back end of nowhere, impulsively propelling him down a well of black market intrigue and dangerous circumstances. He unwisely poses as the fed, and gets himself way in over his head with the wrong kind of people. Mickey Rourke plays a high mannered, low life arms dealer with his usual brand of slick, Mach pizazz, and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio uses her unmistakably sultry presence to great effect as a mysterious, sexy financial backer to their operation. Samuel L. Jackson struts his stuff before big screen fame as a conniving FBI big cheese, and the colourful supporting troupe include M. Emmett Walsh, Mimi Rogers, Maura Tierney, James Rebhorn, Miguel Sandoval, Fred Dalton Thompson and John P. Ryan. When the slightly over convoluted plot threatens to mire us in bewilderment, like the characters get mired in the white deserts of their own morally questionable actions, the solid work from the actors brings us back on track. Even when we don't know exactly what is going on and it's over complicated for complexities sake, we're still intrigued by the lone star, almost Cormac McCarthy like nature of the story, and the cast who are more than willing to commit. Dafoe soars when given the right material and he's on fire here, giving Dolezal a borderline reckless personality and thirst for exodus from the mundane deputy's life that he sells just by being present in every scene. Rourke plays up his bad boy persona with spectacularly coiffed hair and a belligerent, laid back violent streak. It's got a lonely, desolate air to it, perfect for a contemplative yet not too heavy thinking night of cinema.

A man has apparently committed suicide in he New Mexico desert and beside his body is a bag containing $500,000 so local sheriff Ray Dolezal decides to keep the dead man's rendezvous to unravel the mystery A lot of people have complained about WHITE SANDS being implausiable , contrived or over plotted . My complaint is that it's really none of these things but suffers from a fundamental flaw we're warned about at basic screen writing course " Show , don't tell " . For much of the screen time the plot twists and turns well enough but ion the last 15 minutes we have to listen to characters state " I'm not how you think I am , I'm really .... " or we listen to characters give away the plot which means the climax is very much spoon fed to the audience which is something of a shame since while not being a truly great thriller WHITE SANDS deserves to be remembered more than it really is . I guess the dislodge heavy last act conspires to make this a very forgettable movie

Poor Mr. Dafoe and his penchant for doing crap low-budget movies with incredible acting. In fact I go crazy when he does an actual decent movie because he finally gets the respect he deserves but this is not very often so I'm usually just shaking my head in disapproval. Like this for instance, all the actors/actresses delivered quite well but the plot was so shaky that it didn't add up to anything in the end. Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio was incredible and reminded me once again why she can still nail a movie role here and there even though she's past her prime in Hollywood standards. Samuel Jackson's talents were wasted here along with Maura Tierney's and a few others. There's no real sense of having these big name celebrities if they're just going to be playing average roles. I did like how it worked out after all was said and done but the plot and script made no sense at times and the motivation wasn't there. Mickey Rourke was decent for his role and this was probably one of his last real works before he got all weird and slipped into drugs and depression. It's an okay watch but I guarantee you've already seen it done much better in actually good films that this took off of. Final Watch: Movies: Would've been an utter waste. DVD Purchase: Do not want to see this again. Rental: Possibly if you're serving a long sentence and have borrowed every other film from the prison library.

This is one of the most action packed movies ever. Great cast, great plot, great storyline to boot. "White Sands"is awesome. And it's a blast. Here you have a small town sheriff (Willem Dafoe) who uncovers a big mystery. An undercover FBI Agent, and suitcase with half a million dollars. That to him is a big break from the small town life. He goes out to the motel where the victim was staying at. Gets more information, decides to fill in the role of the dead-man, and find himself way over his head. He later meets fellow agent Meeker(Samuel L. Jackson), CIA Lennox(Mickey Rourke) , and Lane Bodine (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), a woman of means join in on the fun. The question is simple, Who to trust? Well, we know it's not Lennox. He's violently murderous. He had the two internal affairs men killed in the desert. And Meeker is no good. He is bound by greed. Big money equals big ego. If I was a Fed, I would stave off temptations. Only Lane was the one he could trust. During the shower scene, she was the one who could return Dolezal back to his regular life. But when convince him that she's very helpful, he had to live it up! And does he ever. Lane's persuasive actions makes Dolezal more intrigued than ever. For the record, Meeker's greed got the best of him. That made him the dirtiest FBI Agent ever. For the sheriff deputy, I think he had enough fun in his life. As long as he doesn't mention this whole scenario with his family. Awesome, totally awesome, what more can I say? 4 out of 5 stars!

The plot is extremely lame even for a suspense movie. Viewers' high expectation easily turns into disappointment. Here is also one of Defoe's worst performances. Maybe he shouldn't have tried to smile and grin "a la Rourke"; or maybe the poor guy is just embarassed silly by the implausible and contrived story. Samuel Jackson, in his pre-Pulp-Fiction existence, suffers from a sad lack of screen presence. On the other hand, Rourke's "charisma", if you choose to call his oily self that, proves to be indestructable. But why bother? 4 out of 10.

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.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with this movie and it is an excellent rental option when you are undecided on what to get in your favorite movie rental service/place. Very good plot, the dialogs are great and the ending is definitely not predictable. Rourke was in his downhill after a flash rise to fame due to 9 1/2 weeks (if you are an 80s guy like me, you know what I mean), but he still gives a good performance and one of his lines was just the best of the whole movie. Samuel Jackson was solid and Dafoe balanced as always. As a bonus the sexiest performance of Mastrantonio in her career. The movie has ups and downs and does not keep you nailed to your chair, but that is the story telling style of the director and I am cool with it.