White Sands (1992)

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.

The story here reminds me a Michelangelo Antonioni's movie "The Passenger" with Jack Nicholson. That movie was a drama about reporter assuming the identity of dead arms dealer. Here we have a similar story with sheriff instead of reporter and a straight-forward thriller.The problem is with the not-so-bright screenplay by Daniel Pyne. Some of the twists here are simply dumb , while other come close to being simply unbelievable. The main twist is also easy to guess from the beginning , even for people with only half of brain. The plot is also kinda predictable at moments. The love story feels very forced , yet I don't mind because I saw breasts of Mastrantonio The best thing about "White sands" is acting. Willem Defoe ("Platoon") plays here one of the most likable heroes I've seen. Mickey Rourke ("Sin city") is great as the arms dealer. Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio ("Robin Hood prince of thieves") is good and shows her breasts. It was also good to see Samuel L. Jackson ("Pulp fiction") and veteran actor M. Emmet Walsh ("Blade runner") in supporting roles. Overall , the acting is really good and the best thing in the whole movie that makes you forget about the weak screenplay."White sands" has some really cool and interesting music by Patrick O Hearn. It's also quite nicely photographed by Peter Menzies Jr. Roger Donaldson is not bad director either here."White sands" is worth watching mostly if you don't really have anything else to do. Otherwise look for something else. It's not terrible , but rather forgettable movie. I give it 3/10.

In order for a movie to hold our attention by presenting interesting and exciting events that exceed what might happen in our normally more mundane lives, we have to suspend our natural critical view that, 'things wouldn't happen that way in real life...'. 'It's a movie', so we cut it some slack and accept things that on the whole, might be somewhat unlikely.Right at the outset White Sands demands a great deal from our reserves of suspended disbelief, and this is because a small hick town sheriff, who turns out to be a very thorough and exacting crime scene detective, responds to the discovery in his jurisdiction, of an apparent suicide victim who has a briefcase containing a huge amount of money, by becoming the sole self-appointed investigator. Then he discovers a lead, and with no backup what-so-ever he decides to take the whole briefcase full of money and set out in a convertible '65 Corvette no less, on a quest to find information about the deceased through pretending to be that person!As our good sheriff drives off and away from his beautiful wife, in his oddly chosen very valuable classic convertible sports car, all alone and with half a million bucks in unknown and unsecured evidence in a briefcase on the seat beside him, we know that he has no idea whom he might meet. What will such people think of this money-stuffed briefcase packing shill of the victim whom for all our sheriff knows, might know is in fact dead? We may well be excused for thinking, 'That wouldn't happen that way in real life'. Do ya think?With a lesser actor in the lead role we might be inclined to see if it isn't too late to get out of our seats and go back to the ticket booth and make a scene about a refund, or to make a phone call and see if the video store is still open, but it's Willem Dafoe and he does pretty darned well with the material.If our next thought, seeing this lone man set off on his quest with his unsecured briefcase of money, is something along the lines of, 'This can't be good...' then we are treated to the fulfilment of our forebodings. It does become much better though. If we forgive the movie's presumption to this point then we are treated to a somewhat less demanding remainder. To say any more would be to do a job of telling that the movie actually does much better than I can.There are several big names in the cast and they do a commendable job. The plot thickens, the characters develop and the viewer is never required to strain credulity to the degree demanded by that setup scenario. It's a generally satisfactory movie and if not in the league of the giants, you shouldn't regret viewing it.Present ratings are rather harsh for this drama but for my part I'd think it warrants a solid 7.

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.