Roger Donaldson directed this undercover police thriller as small town southwest deputy sheriff Ray Dolezal(played by Willem Dafoe) finds a body in the desert with a suitcase full of cash, and no idea how or why it got there. Ray then goes to the extraordinary length of taking on the identity of the dead man in order to get to the bottom of the matter, and finds himself involved with rogue agents of the FBI(Samuel Jackson) & CIA(Mickey Rourke), and also involved with a beautiful woman philanthropist(played by Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), despite being happily married... Mediocre film has a good cast and director but an unconvincing and convoluted story that leaves the viewer unsatisfied.

I have seen this crime drama on a VHS player, in high—school—in '94, perhaps (--after I saw a photo from it in '93, in the Hungarian edition of a cinema magazine--); then, several times on TV. I must have seen it a few times. The most enjoyed was M E Mastrantonio's nude scene. She was a babe I knew as the maid Marian, Robin Hood's bride, and found her very beautiful. I was of course extremely disappointed by the supporting part given to Rourke—his role being my reason for searching and seeing this flick. WHITE SANDS is a movie about the drug traffic. Its best side is the cast—Dafoe, Mastrantonio, Rourke and the others …. Otherwise, Donaldson slapdash. This must also be the last movie where Rourke still had his youth features (--I never knew what to make of his surgical tale--). As a Rourke _completist, I had to see WHITE SANDS; and, as mentioned, did it several times. So, if you enjoy either Dafoe or Mastrantonio or Rourke or average crime dramas or are a Donaldson _completist, see it.Rourke is the actor with the most comebacks; I became a fan in '92, 17 yrs ago, and almost as soon as I became his fan I began hearing about his now countless comebacks. He came back like yearly. It started with White Sands (1992) (which came after what Rourke deemed as his most dishonoring movie, the funny and likable Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man; now if Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man is a bad movie what will you tell about Wild Orchid, Fall Time, Double Team, Love in Paris, Point Blank—his truly nasty ones?); so first he came back with White Sands (1992); then, with F.T.W. (1994), Bullet (1996), Double Team (1997), The Rainmaker, Sin City …--he repeatedly came back to claim his place in Hollywood, weeping about his messed career, etc.. In '94 he claimed he was coming back—but he was still 14 yrs away from a true role. I knew each of his films from RAPE AND MARRIAGE to POINT BLANK (--except for 5 movies--), and from SHERGAR to PICTURE CLAIRE.

Pity the screenwriter who thinks high concept is merely about starting with an ending and working backwards.Pity this one in particular, saddled with a visual of a man running with a suitcase of white sand across white sands.Then pity any audience asked to watch what the screenwriter comes up with by way of a beginning and middle bit to precede the running man with the sand on the sand.(Might also be worth sparing a thought for what passes as local law enforcement in this movie, where the Deputy Sheriff vanishes without a word of explanation to his superiors -- and his superiors, even after several days, can't even arouse sufficient interest to find out where he's gone.)Puerile: a fine example of how a back-of-the-envelope script pitch can turn, if not to sand, then certainly dust.

The plot is extremely lame even for a suspense movie. Viewers' high expectation easily turns into disappointment.Here is also one of Defoe's worst performances. Maybe he shouldn't have tried to smile and grin "a la Rourke"; or maybe the poor guy is just embarassed silly by the implausible and contrived story. Samuel Jackson, in his pre-Pulp-Fiction existence, suffers from a sad lack of screen presence. On the other hand, Rourke's "charisma", if you choose to call his oily self that, proves to be indestructable. But why bother?4 out of 10.