Sands of Oblivion (2007) (TV)

User Rating:

3.7/10   

Director:

David Flores

Writers:

Jeff Coatney (writer)
Kevin VanHook (writer)

Release Date:

6 April 2008 (Russia)

Genre:

Action | Adventure

Plot:

In 1923 legendary film director Cecil B. DeMille finished the epic film The Ten Commandments (1923). After filming was completed...

Plot Keywords:

Title Spoken By Character

Cast

Morena Baccarin	...	Alice Carter
Adam Baldwin	...	Jesse Carter
Victor Webster	...	Mark
George Kennedy	...	John Tevis
Azie Tesfai	...	Jamie
Richard Kind	...	Ira
John Aniston	...	Nigel Barrington
Kristina Sisco	...	Meagan
Grinnell Morris	...	Young Producer
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Alan Kemper Armani	...	Archaeologist
Eric Artell	...	Tommy
April Bowlby	...	Heather
Dan Castellaneta	...	De Mille
Henry Dankwah	...	Egyptian Soldier
Melissa Di Meglio	...	Field Reporter
Shannon Garnett	...	Egyptian Priest
Jamel Gay	...	Archeology Student
Kathleen LaGue	...	Screaming Woman
Charles Lister	...	Buford
Jeff Manzanares	...	Sherif
Raymond O'Connor	...	Dale
Alejandro Patino	...	Raoul
A.J. Presley	...	Archeology Student
Angel Princess	...	Archaeology Student
Nick Principe	...	Anubis Creature
Anthony Reynolds
Wayne Roadie	...	Archaeology Student
Jack Samson	...	Johnny
Daniel Mark Stafford	...	Black Robe Priest
Chelse Swain	...	Carrie
Diana Terranova	...	Ghost Woman
Sigmund Watkins	...	Egyptian Soldier
Paul Weber	...	Pharaoh

Runtime:

USA:90 min | USA:120 min (including commercials)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

Netherlands:16 | Singapore:M18

Filming Locations:

Dumont Dunes, San Bernardino County, California, USA

Company:

Starz Productions

Quotes:

Mark: That was just a walking meat puppet.

Movie Connections:

References Citizen Kane (1941)

What a Great Idea, But........

Over the years I've seen some pretty decent story ideas that the SciFi Channel has used as a basis for original films. They've usually gone to the bad because the money and/or skill needed to make them A quality entertainment just wasn't there.

THE SANDS OF OBLIVION gives them the chance to mess up not a good idea but a potentially awesome one that could have been as exciting as THE MUMMY or RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. Unfortunately, the great idea just fizzles out.

The basis of the story is that when Cecil B. DeMille made the original, silent THE TEN COMMANDMENTS the studio bulldozed the elaborate sets in the California desert instead of recycling the lumber and other building materials. It seems that there had been genuine Egyptian artifacts used in the set and something Very Bad had been unleashed.

In the present day people are digging up the old desert location, and Something Bad is once again free to roam the Earth.

The cast is adequate to the job, and the special effects are really pretty decent. But the script and direction are uneven, and the film never finds a consistent tone. It veers into comedy and seems to disregard the numerous people killed by the newly unleashed monster. Near the end there's a dune buggy race that's professionally filmed but seems to have been cut in from another movie.

The original TEN COMMANDMENTS had a segment set in contemporary times (the 1920's) concerning the building of a cathedral with substandard material and the tragedy of putting cost and convenience in too high a position. A similar theme could have been developed with the lumber, which would be very well preserved in a desert climate.

THE SANDS OF OBLIVION is certainly worth watching, but the main thing I kept thinking was what might have been.