Lucky Strike

A soldier (Scott Eastwood) tries to survive behind enemy lines in Lucky Strike (Distributed by Roadside Attractions)

Lucky Strike is a World War II movie like many others you have seen. A soldier left alone behind enemy lines must use stealth, smarts and his weapons training to make it out alive. There is nothing new here. It is a decently made version of the same story that has already been made hundreds of times. Just because it is based on a true story doesn’t mean it isn’t also extremely derivative.

Director Rod Lurie knows how to shoot an action scene and use framing to generate tension. He also paces this pretty well. Sadly, the dialogue is clunky and overwritten, with the main character telling us what we can see very plainly with our own eyes. He, on the other hand, is underwritten. He is a soldier with a family back home. We are supposed to root for him, not because we like him, but because he is an American in danger from the Nazis.

It does not help that the lead performance from Scott Eastwood is wooden and unconvincing. I did not buy him as a hero, a leader or anything other than a guy pretending to be one of those things in a movie. He needed way, way, way less dialogue. Some of the battle scenes are compelling, and the overall arc of the script is perfectly fine, yet none of the parts holding them together work. It seems to want to be a patriotic, heroic war story, crossed with a traditional action movie. It comes off as a pale imitation of both.

John Castle, an engineer with a wife and baby boy, gets trapped in German territory during the Battle of the Bulge when the rest of his squad is wiped out by the enemy. Now, relying only on radio communication, he must make his way to safety.

One positive about Lucky Strike (96 minutes, without the end credits) is that it doesn’t feel exploitative. Even though the enemy are one-dimensional killers, Castle does not come off as a one-man army, dispatching them for our thrills. He is just a guy trying to see his family again. The action scenes are not pumped-up spectacles, either. They are about survival. Rod Lurie did not turn this story into rah-rah patriotism. He tries to let the heroism speak for itself. I certainly respect that approach, even if it doesn’t work.

Despite the screenplay’s factual pedigree, at no point did it feel like John Castle or anyone he came across was a real person. He is “soldier in danger.” Everyone else is either an obstacle or an innocent he selflessly attempts to aid, regardless of the additional risk. The screenplay plunked whatever the truth actually is into a very safe, very dull, formula. Lurie and cowriter Marc Frydman try to inject emotion using a framing device, but that is so forced, ending the movie with a massive eyeroll.

Lucky Strike could potentially have succeeded as a quiet action movie about an American soldier doing what it takes to get through German territory alone. The filmmakers’ ambition got the better of them, seemingly trying to make this into something rousing in time for the Fourth of July. They definitely failed. While the parts that work are fine, the total package is lacking. This is forgettable and will likely be lost on streaming soon enough.

2½ out of 5

Cast:

Scott Eastwood as John Castle

Directed by Rod Lurie

Written by Marc Frydman and Rod Lurie