The Mosquito Bowl

davidehrlich2.0

There have been any number of movies about the hell of fighting in World War II, the most visceral of which have been made in the years since “Saving Private Ryan” provided a very enduring template for how modern filmmakers could render that carnage with both the spectacle of a blockbuster and the horror of a memory. Peter Berg’s brutal and concussive “The Mosquito Bowl” is definitely one of them! No one could ever say that it’s not.What differentiates this unsparing epic from the scores of other stories about the Greatest Generation, however, is that some of its characters are good at football. Indeed, these All-American college boys are so good at football that, on Christmas Eve 1944, the soldiers are ordered to play a morale-boosting game of two-hand touch on the beach where their units are preparing for the Battle of Okinawa.And for the span of the eight-minute montage during which “The Mosquito Bowl” actually makes good on its title, it’s easy to picture how the famous scrimmage — fought between a roster of impossibly beautiful athletes in their primes — might have been used to backstop a story that accentuated the senseless waste of sending thousands of young men to their deaths. Alas, for the rest of this 126-minute film, that waste is better expressed through Berg’s failure to make anything more of their lives, as the “Spenser Confidential” auteur’s latest Netflix project does almost nothing else to distinguish itself from a genre so well-worn that it’s seemingly run out of ways to blow up a human body.Why “almost”? I was hoping you wouldn’t ask. For starters, there’s the decision to cast thin-skinned ESPN commentator Pat McAfee as an R. Lee Ermey-inspired drill sergeant. “The Mosquito Bowl” also stands out for how confusingly it conflates the thrill and teamwork of combat sport with the violence and camaraderie of armed conflict; war is presented as both a natural extension of what these boys have been trained to do on the gridiron (to the point that the soldiers briefly diagram their plan of attack as if it were a football play), and also the catastrophe that robbed them of a more innocent purpose. (Berg loves the troops as much as he hates the fact that generals and presidents so wantonly sacrifice their lives.) Someone declares that “The Marine Corps is the greatest offensive line in history,” and yet the film’s characters don’t seem to have any special advantages on the field of battle, as it would be glib to suggest that even the country’s best college running back might be able to slip free of a mortar blast. It’s one thing to argue that football is war, and another, much more asinine thing to argue that war is football.~this review continues on IndieWire~

thedarkswan1.0

1 shade of gray. Layed on top like a blanket. Idk wheather to laugh or cry that I could barely see Nicholas Galitzine and Bill Skarsgard, my only 2 reasons for using free will to rearrange my like for and go to the 2pm showing.I loved when they hard cut to real footage of Bob Hope to let us know that was meant to be Bob Hope. And in case you still weren't sure, don't worry they tell you verbally three times, that was indeed Bob Hope. Congratulations to dog from End of Oak Street, you now are no longer the years most ridiculous scene hero and transition. And it's gray.You would laugh in my face if I told you how long the only reason this movie exists(and also it's name) lasts. Deeply unpleasant watch. It's anti-war message feels like an add on, because it's fighting it a every other turn.Now in GrayVisionNicholas Galitzine and Bill Skarsgard are truly great. Even if I struggled to see and tell apart at times. Did I mention this was gra..I kept waiting for end credits to shink into the corner and for it to ask if we liked it.👍👎

Robert Daniels

Lacking humanity and relying almost exclusively on shock, “The Mosquito Bowl,” a heinous World War II epic coming to Netflix, struggles to define its story. Ostensibly about a real-life football game played by Marines on Christmas Eve before the invasion of Okinawa, the film is really about how four college players endured hell during the Pacific theater. As one watches the film, which lurches forward from 1941 to 1944, one wonders if anyone is really interested in its characters or if they’re actually enamored with the exploitative violence it depicts. In some respects, this adaptation of Buzz Bissinger’s historical survey, The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II, is a natural fit for director Peter Berg. His first critically acclaimed work was “Friday Night Lights,” another Bissinger adaptation, which gave him the cachet to helm a series of big-budget Mark Wahlberg movies: “Lone Survivor,” “Patriot’s Day,” “Deepwater Horizon,” and “Mile 22.” Unlike those heightened thrillers, where the tone could be broader and more entertainment-forward, this material needs gravitas and care. Instead, Berg strips this aching story of its meaning. [full review via RogerEbert]