Director: Rod Lurie
Writers: Rod Lurie, Marc Frydman
Stars: Scott Eastwood, Colin Hanks, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor
Synopsis: A wounded American soldier is trapped behind German lines during the Battle of the Bulge.
World War II movies are supposed to make an impact. The Greatest Generation fighting off the tyranny and evil of Nazi Germany should make you feel something. Rod Lurie’s Lucky Strike manages to be forgettable and somehow anonymous about anything and everything the film is interested in.
Scott Eastwood stars as Captain Castle, the leader of a group of World War II Army engineers in Belgium during the winter of 1944. Tasked with blocking a forest path, Castle and his men make their way into the wilderness and stop an approaching German Panzer division. Castle helps disarm a machine gun placement, but is cut off from his men, who are killed by the arriving Panzer.
Caught behind enemy lines and equipped with little more than his new Motorola radio, Castle must navigate the Belgian countryside, avoid detection, stave off multiple injuries, and attempt to get back home to safety. Along the way, he fights off German divisions, encounters occupied locals, and attempts to outsmart the Panzer group.
World War II soldier trapped behind the lines during the Battle of the Bulge should work on some level. Weirdly, the film decides to zero in on odd choices instead of developing any character, including Castle. It’s one thing to make your hero a normal everyman, it’s another to avoid developing him in any way. He keeps his private life private, but not in some mysterious way. It’s almost like the filmmakers didn’t want to put in the effort to flesh out his backstory and left it as some sort of mystery no one cares to solve.
Without spoiling anything, even the title Lucky Strike makes no sense. In the first five minutes, you see Castle smoking with the titular seal burning on a cigarette. That’s the last Lucky Strike mention for well over an hour. When the plot device comes back around, you completely forget it’s the title of the film, much less acting as some pivotal plot point. It reminded me of an episode of The Studio where Seth Rogen attempts to get Martin Scorsese to direct a film about Kool-Aid. I have no idea if the actual, still-in-existence brand is directly involved, but it wouldn’t surprise me.
It begs the question: who is this film even for? It’s not very exciting, has no narrative rhythm, features no performances worth remembering, and touches on the slightest bit of history that is very well publicized already. It’s not overly violent, has no tension, and gives you no reason to care about the main character. Not to mention, an opening framing device clearly establishes Castle’s well-being, zapping any bit of tension out of the proceedings.
At the film’s conclusion, you realize what the filmmakers have been up to, and you sit there gobsmacked at what just transpired. That? That was what all this was about? When it comes to basic filmmaking structure and audience understanding, Lucky Strike goes out of its way to keep you completely in the dark about what is important while being as obvious as possible about everything else. Nazis bad? You don’t say. This guy seems a little shady…he’s shady. The film is almost impressive in its staggering mediocrity, surpassed only by its confounding conclusion.
If anyone other than Eastwood is the main face in front of the camera, maybe some of my problems go away. Unfortunately, he is as bland as possible, to the point I forgot he was the actor in question, on-screen for 80% of the runtime. You could easily put a cavalcade of boringly handsome faces in the role and they would be as ineffective as Eastwood. If not for his occasional teeth gritting, he doesn’t even remind you much of his father.
Colin Hanks shows up for one scene and at least acts like he wants to be there. Poor Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor is on the other side of the two-handed framing device, but she doesn’t have anything to work with. No other actor makes the slightest impression, all vaguely looking the same if they are Americans and all slightly evil looking if they are Nazis.
Lucky Strike is boring, bland, and uninspired. Between Scott Eastwood’s nothing performance and Rod Lurie’s nothing direction, only the confounding filmmaking choices provide anything memorable.
