Sands of Oblivion (DVD)

Sands of Oblivion is a Sci-Fi Channel Saturday supernatural movie that opens up looking much like a History Channel special on the pharaohs, complete with Hanna-Barbera quality CGI, a solemn voice over, and a sparse cast of extras scantily clad in black and gold costumes. There's some mumbo-jumbo about the Left Hand of Seth, and a line ("It was a time of magic, when men dabbled in things beyond themselves") that becomes funny as you match the words with the action: a below-the-waist pan of a long line of strapping young men in loincloths. Dabbling, indeed! Size matters, too: "It was the amulet of Ra; it was deceptively powerful for its size."

Given the usual routine, by-the-numbers plots of most Sci-Fi Channel originals, Sands of Oblivion definitely deserves kudos for being pretty unique in any forum: From the set up of the obligatory ancient evil that's been stewing in its tomb for centuries, we fast-forward to the 1920s in another vast desert, where a film crew is shooting an epic moving picture under the tutelage of none other than legendary director Cecil B. DeMille (Dan Castellaneta).

Forward again to modern times, and Mark (Victor Webster) has recently returned from fighting on the sands of the Iraqi desert. The last thing he wants to do is sift through even more dirt, but his grandpa (George Kennedy) left a time capsule out in the desert 75 years before as a boy on the movie-shoot and it's important they find it.

Meanwhile, Dr. Alice Carter (Morena Baccarin) is leading a group of students on an expedition to find DeMille's sets before they are destroyed by an impending dam-building project. The two teams soon join forces, and the time capsule is found… and, of course, the ancient evil is unleashed. Along for the ride is Alice's soon-to-be-ex-husband, Dr. Jesse Carter (Adam Baldwin), and there's even a fun cameo from John Aniston.

As the somewhat silly-looking mummy/Anubis spirit/creature dispatches the students and anyone else within reach, it will elicit more giggles than gasps. But that's OK. If you enjoy horror-lite adventure movies like Stephen Sommers' The Mummy, and you don't mind a little loose wrapping here and there, Sands of Oblivion is well worth a tip or two of the hourglass.

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