Operación: guerreros del desierto

I absolutely did not want to watch this movie!

A recent rash of extremely nauseating "wrestler" movies like Shutterspeed and First Daughter have left such a bad taste in my mouth that the thought of another "wrestler" vehicle just caused me to cringe. So you can probably understand my feelings when I heard about Operation Sandman. The, UPN produced, movie was being marketed as a vehicle for wrestler, Bob "Hardcore" Holly. Without having seen the film, I passed it off as so much junk.

I was wrong! Boy, was I wrong! This might be one of the most disturbing made-for-television films that I have seen. It concerns a group of American soldiers who submit to sleep deprivation experiments with horrible consequences.

When the killing starts, you'll be asking yourself who? And why? When everything is resolved, get ready to shudder.

Don't look for a laughable, Nightmare On Elm Street-style ending, with soldiers battling boogeymen. Instead, prepare yourself for a dark, serious, Jacobs Ladder-style ending that leaves you guessing, as well as, frightened by its honesty.

A disturbing thrillride that makes you think. Too bad all "wrestler" vehicles weren't this good.

A scientist creates a drug that allows people to go without sleep. It's being tested on military personnel at a remote desert training facility (of course). As you can imagine, people can't go without sleep, so as time goes on, their fears or guilt or whatever truly haunts them begin to bleed into their real life (of course), and this happens just as the program comes under the scrutiny of an outside analyst (of course). People with high caliber weapons hallucinating. Do the math/body count.

Basically the average TV movie quality/formula rainy day movie.

Ron Perlman plays the unflappable scientist with all the single minded focus of an MD who's shooting his own sh*t (MD standing for Mad Doctor of course, so much for a "control group"). Calm, cool and manipulative, the doctor's concerns in life and work stretch no farther than the end of his syringe, and Ron Perlman's right on point with his performance.

Favorite line (spoken by the only member of the test group not to hallucinate): "I grew up in the Bronx. What's left to be afraid of?"

Worth a rent or buy used (if you must have it for your Ron Perlman movie collection).

This film combines very good special effects and action scenes, with an amazing way of playing on one's mind. This is no mere action films, as this will completely blow your mind. This film focus' the viewers Psyche, and is a massively entertaining movie.

Operation Sandman is not your typical made for television garbage. It's a very cool movie with a very different look. There are some shots of the actors in the desert that are similar to those of Three Kings. There's a good blend of action and suspense with shades of Flatliners, Nightscare, and Universal Soldier. That, along with a good cast, make this UPN original a cut above the rest. The cast includes Ron Perlman (Blade II), Richard Tyson (Three O'Clock High), and...Hardcore Bob Holly. Yeah, you heard me. Holly, who is given little screen time, actually impressed me (I'll take him over The Rock any day). But the real saving graces are Perlman and Tyson. Tyson has one of the best lines in the film: "When I want your opinion, I'll give it to you." That's just bad ass. There's a shot of him with wild, crazy eyes and a burning American flag in the background that's absolutely insane looking. And Perlman is at his best in this role. He's a B-movie actor with A-list talent who lends credibility to some bizarre flicks. Overall, the movie is effectively creepy, the direction is great, and it was way better than I expected.

A group of soldiers go through a sleep-deprivation experiment designed to increase combat availability. Using a drug concoction called "juice" the soldiers perform mission after mission flawlessly for three weeks with incredible efficiency until they began seeing "freaks," hallucinations induced by the combination of drugs and sleep deprivation. After a training accident kills one trooper a scientist is sent to evaluate the program. By the time she begins her investigation the remaining troopers are beginning to have difficulty separating reality from hallucination.

The first half of the movie is the more interesting as the problems are gradually uncovered, but the second half lags as it turns into an X-Files style cover-up/conspiracy flick. The low-budget is covered well for most of the film but shows glaringly at times. Definitely worth a watch. All the actors are pretty convincing, particularly Richard Tyson as the senior NCO who looks and sounds exactly like what a hard-assed senior NCO should look like and sound like. Ron Perlman has played the evil guy enough times to do it sleepwalking and does enough to pull it off here. But Mary Ward as the scientist sent in ostensibly to rubber-stamp her approval on the project comes off best as she slowly discovers what is wrong and also realizes she is virtually powerless to prevent what is happening. *** out of *****