Sand Serpents (2009)

hyped garbage

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

This SyFy drama stars Jason Gedrick as Lieutenant Richard Stanley leading a group of U.S. Army special forces in Afghanistan on a final mission before heading home. The group is ambushed and taken prisoner by Taliban soldiers in hopes of releasing or trading them for money or Taliban prisoners. The Americans free themselves after what sounds like an earthquake. Among the ruins they prepare for a rescue chopper when a creature emerges that resembles a giant fanged earthworm.Jeff Renfroe directs and kudos to the cinematography of Brendan Steacy. Action filled horror/thriller. Nice creature sequences.Rounding out the cast: Elias Toufexis, Tamara Hope, Jonas Khan, Andrea Coscal, Sebastian Knapp and Roman Florentin.

Sand Serpents (2009) ** (out of 4) American soldiers are making their way through the Afghanistan desert when they come under fire by the Taliban. The soldiers are eventually captured, tied up and about to be executed when they hear a loud noise and before they know it all the Taliban are dead. It turns out that an earlier explosion had awaken several large worms that are underground and can respond by the noises made on land. This "Creature Feature" advertises giant worms but what we're pretty much got is a rip-off a TREMORS and the weird thing is that the horror elements are actually the least interesting thing. It's uncommon for my girlfriend to watch movies with me and especially films like this but half way through she turned to me and said this wouldn't be too bad if those worms would quit coming up. In many ways she was true because the worms just look too silly and they actually had zero to the film. If someone wants to watch giant worms then TREMORS is masterpiece of horror, monster, comedy and just all around good fun. This film here can't come close no matter how hard the filmmakers try and it's amazing that Universal didn't go after this picture due to the familiar monsters. The stuff with the soldiers dealing with being away from their families and the way they maneuver through their operators were actually the most entertaining thing in the film. I thought there was some nice suspense early in the film when they're walking through the desert just waiting for their targets to come up. One of the soldiers is having a breakdown from not seeing his family and another is hiding some deep secrets. This drama works a lot better than the horror elements and that's weird to say because in most of these monster movies it's the boring melodrama that kills things. The performances aren't too bad with Jason Gedrick leading the way. The special effects are extremely cheap and really don't add anything. I think fans of the genre will probably want to check it out if they must see everything out there but others should just rent TREMORS.

Now that Iraq has simmered down, the war news such as it is concerns Afghanistan. Something the government is keeping from the American public are those giant worms that are doing more damage to the Allies, the Taliban, and anything else they take a mind to eat. And as big as they are they've got some huge appetites.Jason Gedrick and a small group of Marines are stranded out in the remote Afghan desert. But it ain't the Taliban that's worrying them, it's these giant refugees from Tremors. In fact the big worms prove to be an ally of sorts by doing better against the Taliban than these clearly outclassed troops are. No reflection to the Marine Corps, but battling these enemies is something not covered in their training.It all gets downright silly at times. But if these things are out there I suggest we let them breed and chow down on the Jihadists. Otherwise I'd pass Sand Serpents right on by.

OK, I barely saw any of this movie, but from what I did see, it was a complete knock off of Tremors! They hunt by sound? No, Graboids do that, not sand serpents. Again, I didn't see this movie completely, only about 10-20 minutes scattered around, but it just lacked the charm that the Tremors movies and TV show have. I love all four Tremors movies and the TV show, and am really hoping Tremors: The Thunder From Down Under comes out. When seeing this I felt betrayed by SciFi (SyFy). They used to show the Tremors movies all the time on SciFi channel. They even had the TV series, until they canceled it after half a season. Only to come out with this six years later! I would have been much happier if they just made Tremors 5 for TV then released it on DVD. Well, at least I have all four movies and taped every episode of the TV series. Oh, that's another thing. They never released the Tremors TV series on DVD. Great job, guys! Just leave behind what the people want and keep making more movies like Sand Serpents! What's next? Probably a sequel, Land Serpents, then Air Serpents, followed by a TV show called Nothing To Do With Serpents, then getting a prequel Baby-turned-Sand Serpents. Plus, what's a giant worm movie without Michael Gross playing Burt Gummer (or a prequel with one of his relatives)?