Sangre, arena y oro

I have never written a review before but felt I had to this time. Saw this advertised online then read the review by GearPatrol.com on IMDb...for the money ($274k) the result is amazing. Mr Connell has made the genre of film he wants and should be more than pleased with the result. Most low budget indies are about character and story but this shows that the genre can be bigger than that. This reminds me of what Gareth Evans did with 'The Raid' but for less. Yes..the acting may not be the best (but far better than most of us could ever do, believe me) but he has made a small, independent movie that so surpasses expectations that I cannot believe. His vision far out ways his budget and the major producers/studios must surely want to see what he does with a larger budget. And no, I am not related to anybody connected to the director, producers, investor or anybody else. I just love film of all genres and was really amazed with what I just saw...sometimes you just want to be entertained. Watch and enjoy.

Without a doubt, it is not a blockbuster movie, but it has managed to create a quality film with low resources, good talent and experience. A great achievement for the beginning of several new film agency in the world with great stories.

Do yourself a favor and buy this movie right now. Not only is it a ton of fun to watch, but it's also the future of movie making. For less than $275k, director Gaelan Connell has made a epic action movie that gives most any Hollywood blockbuster a run for it's money. Sure, the script has a few cheesy lines, (it is an action movie after all), and none of the actors (all relatively unknowns) deliver a performance quite as memorable as, say, Heath Ledger did as the Joker. But this movie was shot for a fraction of the budget of any Hollywood blockbuster and is honestly almost as good. The Dark Knight cost $180 million to make. Blood, Sand, and Gold literally cost 0.1% percent of that to make. Not one percent. POINT one percent! And here is the crazy thing: You really wouldn't know it was made for so little by watching it. The action sequences are top notch, the locations are exotic, and the pacing is superb. There are car chases, foot pursuits, exploding trucks, helicopters, grenade launchers, machine guns, luxury cars, and a seriously big tiger! Part of what makes the movie so exciting is that Mr. Connell and his crew didn't rely on special effects during any of the movie's many action scenes. When one of the bad guys gets chased straight off the roof of a building, the stunt guy really does go crashing into the hood of the car parked below. Metal bends, the windshield shatters, and you completely forget that you are just watching a movie. When the fuel tank on an SUV ruptures after a car chase in the desert, you watch as it actually blows up! There is no CGI or digital touch up, just one massive fireball as the SUV explodes into gnarl of twisted char. It is gritty and real and absolutely exhilarating to watch.

If I were a Hollywood producer I would be terrified of Gaelan Connell. With Blood, Sand, and Gold, he just proved that with enough raw talent and ambition you can make a full-length, blockbuster quality action movie for about the same amount of money that Christopher Nolan spent on just 30 seconds of the Dark Knight. This is the future of film making!

Even though I really wanted this movie to be my cup of tea, which it could have been if they would have used a tripod and would have taken the time to do a bit of decent casting, it turned out to be everything but that. I'm not saying all actors are bad in this movie, but there are quite a few cringe worthy moments. There's a Dutch speaking guy that can't even manage to get the grammar right. Shaky cam -at times- is so bad, that even slowly walking people are (partially) out of the frame. Drunk filming might be fun to do, but the result is no fun to watch. To be fair, the sound is okay though. It feels like most of the budget was spent on sound and music.

All in all I can't say that I enjoyed this film and I cannot agree with those who claim it's 'the future of action movies'. And if it turns out to be just that, it's a sad future indeed.

I didn't make it to the end, so maybe there's some great stuff that I've missed, but that's a chance I'm willing to take..

I think the most expensive part of this film had to be the travel and catering because if these actors got paid for this terrible movie they should give the money back. Don't waste your time. I've see fan films with better acting.