No touchdowns for this shockingly bad WWII movie.
Director Peter Berg has specialized in war movies like “Lone Survivor” and football movies like “Friday Night Lights.” And his new movie “The Mosquito Bowl” is about four football players and soldiers who would play the Mosquito Bowl game during World War II and then engage in combat at the Battle of Okinawa. So, you would think that this would be an entertaining war sports movie. But think again, because it’s an ambitious mess.
I’ve praised WWII movies like “Flags of Our Fathers,” “Letters from Iwo Jima,” “Dunkirk,” and “Saving Private Ryan” for showing us different sides of the war. They’re not supposed to be the same stories but rather the same story from one perspective to another. But even I can’t even watch “Pearl Harbor,” and pay attention to its characters or story. That’s how lousy “The Mosquito Bowl” is.
The young football players and marines consist of John McLaughry (Nicholas Galitzine), Bob Baumann (Bill Skarsgard), Tony Butkovich (Ray Nicholson), and Dave Schreiner (Tom Francis). In this dramatization, John is the main hero, Bob loves his family, Tony is cocky and narcissistic, and Dave is sensitive and grounded. Other than that, the film gives them no character development, but makes them like sidekicks in a war plot.
Their drill sergeant (former football punter and kickoff specialist Pat McAfee) insults them so much, it’s almost as if he’s been possessed by the spirit of R. Lee Ermy (I can now imagine him yelling at Pat: “What is your major malfunction?!”). About five minutes of insults and yelling, and I can already smell his bad breath.
Eventually, they find themselves in battle, where they’re nearly downing in waves and barely make their way on the beach. And that’s when the bullets come flying in, and that’s when the surviving soldiers kill their enemy every chance they get.
After a fist fight, the soldiers are then assigned to set up a football game on Christmas Eve. The Mosquito Bowl, which would have the division’s 4th and 29th Marine Regiments going against each other.
And finally, the Battle of Okinawa comes in, and the soldiers are fighting. It was the largest amphibious assault on the Pacific Theater of World War II. And the movie closes with how many lives were lost to it-soldiers on both sides and civilians. But somehow in Peter Berg’s hands, the credits are more respectful than the actual battle, which almost feels like a satire than a serious drama.
“The Mosquito Bowl” is one of the rare Netflix movies to show its face at AMC Theaters after the success of “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” and “KPop Demon Hunters.” I’m not sure really, but I think maybe the theater chain and streaming service may have settled their differences. Or I could be wrong and this is still a rare thing. But if this is the case, then I think this is the wrong movie to celebrate in a theater. It may think so if it has battles, guns, fights, and bombs-all that are usually better seen on a big screen-but it all feels chaotic and dull.
Galitzine and Skarsgard are both fine young actors, but their portrayals are as tasty as bread without butter. You know how it was back then. And Nicholson and Francis both feel too cliched to be charming and entertaining.
Berg is a filmmaker who has made good and bad movies. It does tend to flip around every now and then with some good movies and then a bad movie in the center. And this is his first movie since the entertaining “Spenser Confidential.” And it’s also the latest bad movie, and that’s unfortunate, because I love football and war movies. “The Mosquito Bowl” can’t pass or run.
Now Playing in Theaters
Premieres on Netflix November 25
