As I've never seen this discussed here I'll throw it in.
Sands of Oblivion A nice modestly budgeted film with a plot that revolves around DeMille's 1923 filming of The Ten Commandments. SPOILER: For authenticity DeMille brings authentic Ancient Egyptian elements to Hollywood for his Ten Commandments set- but a curse comes along with them. He manages to contain the curse in an underground chamber (with the help of the Freemasons of Hollywood!) and bulldozes the set to keep it hidden. Unfortunately the modern archaeological excavations release the curse in the form of Anubis.
Pretty decent film with some attention to detail in the 1923 sections, DeMille is nicely played by Dan Castellaneta. (after chatting with one of his Jewish assistants he says "OK- lets get back to saving your people") Not a masterpiece but this deserved better than the direct-to-cable release on the Sci-Fi network, in 2008 it got a good DVD release.
A bit OT: Sands of Oblivion (2007)
A bit OT: Sands of Oblivion (2007)
Last edited by FrankFay on Fri Jan 01, 2010 10:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Eric Stott
Re: A bit OT: Sands of Oblivion (2007)
Intrigued. Netflix queue. Thanks!FrankFay wrote:As I've never seen this discussed here I'll throw it in.
Sands of Oblivion A nice modestly budgeted film with a plot that revolves around DeMille's 1923 filming of The Ten Commandments. SPOILER: For authenticity DeMille brings authentic Ancient Egyptian elements to Hollywood for his Ten Commandments set- but a curse comes along with them. He manages to contain the curse in an underground chamber (with the help of the Freemasons of Hollywood!) and bulldozes the set to keep it hidden. Unfortunately the modern archaeological excavations release the curse in the form of Anubis.
Pretty decent film with some attention to detail in the 1923 sections, DeMille is nicely played by Dan Castellaneta. (after chatting with one of his Jewish assistants he says "OK- lets get back to saving your people") Not a masterpiece but this deserved better than the direct-to-cable release on the Sci-Fi network, in 2008 it got a good DVD release.[/b]
Fred
Fred
"Who really cares?"
Jordan Peele, when asked what genre we should put his movies in.
http://www.nitanaldi.com"
http://www.facebook.com/NitaNaldiSilentVamp"
"Who really cares?"
Jordan Peele, when asked what genre we should put his movies in.
http://www.nitanaldi.com"
http://www.facebook.com/NitaNaldiSilentVamp"
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Christopher Jacobs
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I never saw SANDS OF OBLIVION on the Sci-Fi channel, and never noticed it on DVD anywhere, but apparently it came out on BluRay this past December. I happened to be walking through the "Best Buy" BluRay section last week seeing what all might be marked down to a reasonable price on some of their unadvertised sales, and what should I find but SANDS OF OBLIVION selling for only $6.99 on BluRay instead of their normal $15! Naturally, I couldn't resist after the heads-up in this thread and the blurb on the back of the box.
The good news is, the part of the movie set in 1923 and dealing with DeMille and THE 10 COMMANDMENTS is a lot of fun. The bad news is, the rest of the movie (i.e., most of it) ranges from adequate to mediocre to not very good at all (and I'm one who actually likes that kind of story). At least it's only 94 minutes, but it seems more like two hours.
SANDS OF OBLIVION (2007)
The movie begins in ancient Egypt, much like the 1999 MUMMY remake and the moderately diverting 2005 TV movie CURSE OF KING TUT'S TOMB, but here the acting, production values, and plot points really show their TV budget cheesiness. Luckily that part is the shortest section of the film. The next part jumps to 1923 when Cecil B. DeMille is just finishing his desert footage for THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. Dan Castellaneta, better known as the voice of Homer Simpson, makes a great DeMille, looking vaguely like him and capturing his vocal inflections perfectly. He's running a bit over budget, and oops, somebody gets mysteriously killed one night before they're done. There's a scene of a little boy, son of one of the crew members, burying an Egyptian-themed time capsule in the sands and then the collapsing of the walls of the massive plywood and plaster Egyptian set in the background (done with either decent miniatures or okay CGI). We can only wish this sequence would have lasted more than a few minutes, because it has the greatest attention to details and feeling for its period of the film. The film might have been far more impressive if this part was closer to half the total length instead of just setting up the intriguing situation before jumping up to the present day, where it immediately shifts to a distinctively TV movie-of-the-week glorified prime-time soap feeling.
In the present we have a Hollywood-attractive archeological team (naturally with the female PhD in charge wearing a crop-top and short-shorts) racing to locate and dig up the set on the California beach before shifting tides (due to an oil company, of course) put that stretch of sand underwater forever. Meanwhile the little boy who buried the time capsule is now the elderly grandfather of an Iraq vet and the pair are trying to locate his buried time capsule on their own. And the egotistic and adulterous soon-to-be-ex-husband of the excavation team leader is a noted Egyptologist who insists on getting involved in the dig when some of the artifacts they unearth appear to be authentic ancient Egyptian rather than Hollywood imitations. Of course something happens that accidentally unleashes a murderous ancient spirit that starts killing off people until they can no longer pass it off as tragic coincidence. And then it devolves into even more routine and painfully slow formula horror thriller mode through the inevitable end. There is an innovatively interesting fight scene near the end, where the paintings come off the wall (as flat, paperdoll-like people) to fight the hero. There's also a rather unintentionally amusing scene where our heroes break into the "DeMille Archives" to look up some key financial records that conveniently happen to be easily accessible. The office looks similar to the reconstruction of DeMille's office at the Lasky barn, but the "archives" building is certainly something completely different, with a caretaker living on the premises. Perhaps Bob Birchard could comment on this sequence if he's seen the movie.
The script sets up some nice premises and periodically attempts to flesh out characters beyond the usual flat caricatures, and works in a few fun old-movie references, but the directing is so pedestrian that we're just waiting for the next thing to happen (not terribly surprising knowing it was made for television). The acting overall (Castellaneta and a few others in the 1923 segment excepted) is not even up to most TV movies or soap operas, and looks more like something from a no-budget indie film (and I ought to know!). Morena Baccarin is acceptable most of the time as the too-beautiful archaeologist, but Adam Baldwin is simply awful as her husband and Victor Webster as the Iraqi vet looks like he wishes he were in a better film most of the time. Even poor George Kennedy looks like he's walking through his part as the grandfather like it was a favor for somebody he wasn't too thrilled to be doing. Most of the smaller roles are completely unmemorable. My own no-budget Egypt-related fantasies, THE THREAT OF THE MUMMY, VENGEANCE OF THE SORCERESS, and DANGERS FROM WITHIN, may not have had anywhere near the production resources or CGI effects, but can boast no-name nonprofessional casts that are as good or better dramatically than these supposed SAG professionals, and certainly convey a stronger commitment to the projects. And if I can do them on budgets averaging around a thousand dollars per feature
(see http://www.und.nodak.edu/instruct/cjacobs/Website/ ),
there's no excuse for a Hollywood production company with a budget that can afford 35mm film, some decent CGI, and even B-list SAG actors.
The Starz/Anchor Bay BluRay transfer of the SANDS OF OBLIVION looks and sounds pretty good, although not especially outstanding or "reference quality" and the audio is only a compressed Dolby Digital track. The disc itself is an even lower-budget affair than the film, as there are absolutely no bonus feature at all, not even a menu! The movie simply starts playing as soon as it loads into your player, and then repeats from the beginning as soon as it's done. There are chapter stops, at least, but they're all at arbitrary spots exactly 10 minutes apart. Horror fans will likely be underwhelmed by film's few gory parts and almost non-existent suspense. For a film buff or Egyptophile, the movie is still probably worth buying on BluRay at only $6.99 (on Amazon last I checked it was $8.49, which still might be worth it for a diehard genre completist), but I certainly wouldn't want to pay more than $3 or $4 for a standard DVD of it. Most movie buffs may prefer an even cheaper rental to check it out.
I'm always a sucker for any Egypt-themed movies, whether historical dramas, archaological mysteries, or far-fetched horror-thriller-fantasies, and even I was horribly disappointed by SANDS OF OBLIVION. Substantially better made-for-TV fare in the supernatural Egyptian genre is the silly and way overlong but far more entertaining and better-acted B-grade adventure-fantasy THE CURSE OF KING TUT'S TOMB, also available on a bargain BluRay. And a bit more fun in the old movie and old movie theatre horror genre is the okay low-budget feature MIDNIGHT MOVIE (2008), yet another cheap BluRay sometimes packaged with the even more fun movie production-themed horror comedy KILLER MOVIE (2008) as an even cheaper bargain double-disc BluRay set. (I also found SHADOW OF THE VAMPIRE to be quite enjoyable, despite its far-fetched, over-the-top, and inaccurate, misleading fantasy, and will probably buy it again once it hits BluRay.)
SANDS OF OBLIVION on BluRay:
Movie: C
Video: A-
Audio: A-
Extras: F
--Christopher Jacobs
http://hpr1.com/film
http://www.und.edu/instruct/cjacobs
The good news is, the part of the movie set in 1923 and dealing with DeMille and THE 10 COMMANDMENTS is a lot of fun. The bad news is, the rest of the movie (i.e., most of it) ranges from adequate to mediocre to not very good at all (and I'm one who actually likes that kind of story). At least it's only 94 minutes, but it seems more like two hours.
SANDS OF OBLIVION (2007)
The movie begins in ancient Egypt, much like the 1999 MUMMY remake and the moderately diverting 2005 TV movie CURSE OF KING TUT'S TOMB, but here the acting, production values, and plot points really show their TV budget cheesiness. Luckily that part is the shortest section of the film. The next part jumps to 1923 when Cecil B. DeMille is just finishing his desert footage for THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. Dan Castellaneta, better known as the voice of Homer Simpson, makes a great DeMille, looking vaguely like him and capturing his vocal inflections perfectly. He's running a bit over budget, and oops, somebody gets mysteriously killed one night before they're done. There's a scene of a little boy, son of one of the crew members, burying an Egyptian-themed time capsule in the sands and then the collapsing of the walls of the massive plywood and plaster Egyptian set in the background (done with either decent miniatures or okay CGI). We can only wish this sequence would have lasted more than a few minutes, because it has the greatest attention to details and feeling for its period of the film. The film might have been far more impressive if this part was closer to half the total length instead of just setting up the intriguing situation before jumping up to the present day, where it immediately shifts to a distinctively TV movie-of-the-week glorified prime-time soap feeling.
In the present we have a Hollywood-attractive archeological team (naturally with the female PhD in charge wearing a crop-top and short-shorts) racing to locate and dig up the set on the California beach before shifting tides (due to an oil company, of course) put that stretch of sand underwater forever. Meanwhile the little boy who buried the time capsule is now the elderly grandfather of an Iraq vet and the pair are trying to locate his buried time capsule on their own. And the egotistic and adulterous soon-to-be-ex-husband of the excavation team leader is a noted Egyptologist who insists on getting involved in the dig when some of the artifacts they unearth appear to be authentic ancient Egyptian rather than Hollywood imitations. Of course something happens that accidentally unleashes a murderous ancient spirit that starts killing off people until they can no longer pass it off as tragic coincidence. And then it devolves into even more routine and painfully slow formula horror thriller mode through the inevitable end. There is an innovatively interesting fight scene near the end, where the paintings come off the wall (as flat, paperdoll-like people) to fight the hero. There's also a rather unintentionally amusing scene where our heroes break into the "DeMille Archives" to look up some key financial records that conveniently happen to be easily accessible. The office looks similar to the reconstruction of DeMille's office at the Lasky barn, but the "archives" building is certainly something completely different, with a caretaker living on the premises. Perhaps Bob Birchard could comment on this sequence if he's seen the movie.
The script sets up some nice premises and periodically attempts to flesh out characters beyond the usual flat caricatures, and works in a few fun old-movie references, but the directing is so pedestrian that we're just waiting for the next thing to happen (not terribly surprising knowing it was made for television). The acting overall (Castellaneta and a few others in the 1923 segment excepted) is not even up to most TV movies or soap operas, and looks more like something from a no-budget indie film (and I ought to know!). Morena Baccarin is acceptable most of the time as the too-beautiful archaeologist, but Adam Baldwin is simply awful as her husband and Victor Webster as the Iraqi vet looks like he wishes he were in a better film most of the time. Even poor George Kennedy looks like he's walking through his part as the grandfather like it was a favor for somebody he wasn't too thrilled to be doing. Most of the smaller roles are completely unmemorable. My own no-budget Egypt-related fantasies, THE THREAT OF THE MUMMY, VENGEANCE OF THE SORCERESS, and DANGERS FROM WITHIN, may not have had anywhere near the production resources or CGI effects, but can boast no-name nonprofessional casts that are as good or better dramatically than these supposed SAG professionals, and certainly convey a stronger commitment to the projects. And if I can do them on budgets averaging around a thousand dollars per feature
(see http://www.und.nodak.edu/instruct/cjacobs/Website/ ),
there's no excuse for a Hollywood production company with a budget that can afford 35mm film, some decent CGI, and even B-list SAG actors.
The Starz/Anchor Bay BluRay transfer of the SANDS OF OBLIVION looks and sounds pretty good, although not especially outstanding or "reference quality" and the audio is only a compressed Dolby Digital track. The disc itself is an even lower-budget affair than the film, as there are absolutely no bonus feature at all, not even a menu! The movie simply starts playing as soon as it loads into your player, and then repeats from the beginning as soon as it's done. There are chapter stops, at least, but they're all at arbitrary spots exactly 10 minutes apart. Horror fans will likely be underwhelmed by film's few gory parts and almost non-existent suspense. For a film buff or Egyptophile, the movie is still probably worth buying on BluRay at only $6.99 (on Amazon last I checked it was $8.49, which still might be worth it for a diehard genre completist), but I certainly wouldn't want to pay more than $3 or $4 for a standard DVD of it. Most movie buffs may prefer an even cheaper rental to check it out.
I'm always a sucker for any Egypt-themed movies, whether historical dramas, archaological mysteries, or far-fetched horror-thriller-fantasies, and even I was horribly disappointed by SANDS OF OBLIVION. Substantially better made-for-TV fare in the supernatural Egyptian genre is the silly and way overlong but far more entertaining and better-acted B-grade adventure-fantasy THE CURSE OF KING TUT'S TOMB, also available on a bargain BluRay. And a bit more fun in the old movie and old movie theatre horror genre is the okay low-budget feature MIDNIGHT MOVIE (2008), yet another cheap BluRay sometimes packaged with the even more fun movie production-themed horror comedy KILLER MOVIE (2008) as an even cheaper bargain double-disc BluRay set. (I also found SHADOW OF THE VAMPIRE to be quite enjoyable, despite its far-fetched, over-the-top, and inaccurate, misleading fantasy, and will probably buy it again once it hits BluRay.)
SANDS OF OBLIVION on BluRay:
Movie: C
Video: A-
Audio: A-
Extras: F
--Christopher Jacobs
http://hpr1.com/film
http://www.und.edu/instruct/cjacobs
Last edited by Christopher Jacobs on Tue Mar 23, 2010 3:48 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Christopher Jacobs
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- Joined: Tue Jan 22, 2008 12:53 pm
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--DELETED accidental double-post--
(darn dialup and server problems!!)
--Christopher Jacobs
http://hpr1.com/film
http://www.und.edu/instruct/cjacobs
(darn dialup and server problems!!)
--Christopher Jacobs
http://hpr1.com/film
http://www.und.edu/instruct/cjacobs
Oh well, I did see part of it, but I ended up wandering away from it. Since you'd liked it, I decided not to retch publicly. Phew. I guess we can say it had potential.FrankFay wrote:You pretty much got it. I found enough in the film to enjoy it , as I'm a Freemason I liked that they saved the day (sort of). As the disc was dirt cheap I could be a bit charitable.
I'm a big sucker for Egyptian-themed films, too, even more so for Roman-era films and films derived from Greek mythology. I am already in line for Clash of the Titans, get that damned kraken out of my way. Let's not even mention how much...how very, very much...so much...I enjoyed 300.
Although that wasn't because of the Greek mythology thing.
Fred
"Who really cares?"
Jordan Peele, when asked what genre we should put his movies in.
http://www.nitanaldi.com"
http://www.facebook.com/NitaNaldiSilentVamp"
"Who really cares?"
Jordan Peele, when asked what genre we should put his movies in.
http://www.nitanaldi.com"
http://www.facebook.com/NitaNaldiSilentVamp"
Re: A bit OT: Sands of Oblivion (2007)
I wonder if the screen writer knew that deMille really did bulldoze the Ten Commandments set (to keep it hidden from competing film crews) and that there really is an attempt to excavate it (because that's what archeologists do).FrankFay wrote:He manages to contain the curse in an underground chamber (with the help of the Freemasons of Hollywood!) and bulldozes the set to keep it hidden. Unfortunately the modern archaeological excavations release the curse in the form of Anubis.
Jim Henry
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Mike Gebert
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http://www.noob.us/humor/robot-chicken-1776-300-spoof/Frederica wrote:Let's not even mention how much...how very, very much...so much...I enjoyed 300.
Cinema has no voice, but it speaks to us with eyes that mirror the soul. ―Ivan Mosjoukine
Thank you for that. George Washington with washboard abs--it's an idea whose time has come.Mike Gebert wrote:http://www.noob.us/humor/robot-chicken-1776-300-spoof/Frederica wrote:Let's not even mention how much...how very, very much...so much...I enjoyed 300.
It has taken me years to get this shallow.
Fred
"Who really cares?"
Jordan Peele, when asked what genre we should put his movies in.
http://www.nitanaldi.com"
http://www.facebook.com/NitaNaldiSilentVamp"
"Who really cares?"
Jordan Peele, when asked what genre we should put his movies in.
http://www.nitanaldi.com"
http://www.facebook.com/NitaNaldiSilentVamp"
(Sniff.) I prefer to call it "an appreciation for beauty."boblipton wrote:It still calls for natural talent.
Bob
Fred
"Who really cares?"
Jordan Peele, when asked what genre we should put his movies in.
http://www.nitanaldi.com"
http://www.facebook.com/NitaNaldiSilentVamp"
"Who really cares?"
Jordan Peele, when asked what genre we should put his movies in.
http://www.nitanaldi.com"
http://www.facebook.com/NitaNaldiSilentVamp"