Battle of the Bulge, or Bulging with Bloat?
Let’s find out together, shall we?

Please check out my video review and my written review below. Go on…I know you want too!

Lucky Strike is a WWII action drama, set during The Battle of Bulge, and stars Scott Eastwood as Captain John Castle, and Colin Hanks as Colonel Neale.

Tasked with destroying enemy supply lines, Captain Castle and his team of engineers are told to blow up a large area of trees next to a road that will prevent Nazi supply lines from getting to the front.
Before they can fell the trees, a German gun nest sees them, and opens fire on them, killing everyone but Captain Castle. His task now, is to get back to allied lines without being killed or captured, and it’s 32km away!

Sounds like a rip-roaring survival film, right? Well, it’s kind of like that, but there are issues, and those issues while not significant, can impact how much you enjoy it.

The Cast

Scott Eastwood stars as the protagonist Captain John Castle, and Colin Hanks as Colonel Neale. Both do an admirable job, but I think Hanks is the better actor here. Eastwood can come off at times as a bit stiff and wooden. There are scenes where he reverts to using his father’s trademark looks, like the squinting eye when he’s annoyed, or the curling side of his smile. I should imagine it’s very difficult to escape the shadow of your father who is a movie legend. Unfortunately I don’t think Scott Eastwood has found his own ‘groove’ yet. Maybe, he never will.

Colin Hanks as Colonel Neale (left) and Scott Eastwood as Captain John Castle (right)

The Script

The script writers do a fine job in this production, and have clearly taken notes from not only bigger productions in the likes of Band of Brothers, but also managed to nail some of the lesser known historical actions carried out by the Nazis. A great example of this is towards the end of the film, where I was very surprised to learn of a particular campaign used by the Germans to effectively spy on the allies. So for me, this attention to detail was a plus.
This story is not a true story in the strictest sense, but rather an amalgamation of various stories all rolled into one. Picking at multiple accounts of behind-the-lines survival stories to create this one is ok, but it does feel for the most part to be very generic and light.
While the dialogue is tight, the exposition is on-point, but there are times where it feels a little forced.

The Score

The music to this film is very good, and while it’s not a big rousing orchestra, and opts for a more ‘generic’ sound, the score does invoke memories of greats like Band of Brothers and Saving Private Ryan. You could in theory slot this work into any of those films, and it would work. Thinking about it, the score does at times sound like something you would have heard in a early PS2 version of Medal of Honor, and I mean that as a compliment. Those games had some of the best WWII soundtracks, and I hear that in this film.

Special and Visual Effects

In this part of the review, I will include points that technically lie outside of effects. I’ll start with the costumes. Every uniform on the screen is period accurate, which you would expect in a WWII film. The vehicles used were semi-accurate, in that some of the tanks and half-tracks are actually later models than those used during WWII. The sets were well designed and considered. It’s here that I think we can forgive the issues with the vehicles, because let’s face it, not many viewers would even know that what they are seeing isn’t technically accurate to the time setting.
The big bone of contention is some of the other props used. You can clearly see that some of the weapons on-screen are rubber props, and you can even see one of these in trailer.
Muzzle flashes are huge problem in this film. It’s almost as if they ran out of money and employed a 13 year old with a 10 year out-of-date copy of After Effects to create the fake muzzle flashes. One instance is where Castle is firing a Luger, and it looks as if someone is trying to spark a lighter. Very poor work in an area that is supposed to sell realism. There is also some fire effects at one point which are OK but nothing great or memorable. However, the prosthetic and make-up effects with one scene are very well done.

The Director

Rod Laurie has been responsible for some excellent films through his career, such as The Contender, The Last Castle and The Outpost. He does a good job here with what he has on the table, which is around $10 million dollars in production value.
Unfortunately, there are stylistic elements to this film that simply don’t pay off, which I will explain next. His pacing is off at times, and it leads to dull areas of the film interspersed with action and drama. I don’t think the editing here is as tight as the script, and the film suffers for it.

Overall Thoughts

Lucky Strike has in it some choices that make little sense, such as the beginning where the starting segment is filmed in black and white. i can’t fathom why this was done. Directly after this there is the start of a loose story with a lady who worked in a wartime factory making radios, and some form of compensation she’s due. We never find out what why she is due this.
The end of the film has real-life pictures of allied soldiers at the Battle of the Bulge, and attempts in earnest to imitate titles such as Lone Survivor. Yet what it actually does is come across as a Pro-American propaganda message, especially as this is overlayed with “Show Mercy To The Hero” by Calman Hart.
And while we are here, the title does indeed refer to the cigarette brand, and does play a role towards the end of the film, which again, is another example of period accurate information I didn’t know about.

In summation, Lucky Strike is an admirable effort in the crowded WWII genre, but unfortunately Scott Eastwood’s limited acting range let’s the film down in many areas. Yes, he can do action. It’s the inability to convey real emotion that shows his weaknesses as a leading man. Some of the effects are very questionable if not laughable, and some of the props used are terrible, breaking the immersion without even so much as an apology.

It’s good, but it doesn’t do enough to stand out in the crowd.

I give Lucky Strike a…

Thanks for reading, and/or watching the my video review above. I’ll be doing more video reviews and if you enjoyed this one, let us know giving this post a like, and if you agreed, or disagreed with this review, let us know in the comments section below.

Until the next review, keep your socks dry, your helmet on, and your rubber gun shiny!