Lucky Strike Review: Scott Eastwood Leads a Well-Meaning Cinematic Misfire

While watching the new American war film Lucky Strike, two things crossed my mind. First, the movie is like dozens before it, this time set as a period piece, as if that alone would give the film some credibility. The other is: how on earth does Scott Eastwood pick his projects? The son of American filmmaking legend Clint Eastwood, who has occasionally secured supporting parts in his father’s films and franchise fare, has chosen some eye-opening vehicles to star in that are beneath his talent.

We are talking about Stolen Girl, Alarum, and one of last year’s worst films, Tin Soldier, making me want to give up the profession entirely. How can an actor from the lineage of Hollywood royalty, who brings such a natural screen presence with a quiet, stoic, clenched-jaw intensity, pick bad projects, including Lucky Strike, year after year? It is a mystery. At least with his latest, he has his heart in the right place, paying tribute to America’s Greatest Generation, even if the film itself is a well-meaning cinematic misfire.

What is Lucky Strike about?

The story follows Captain John Castle (Fast X‘s Scott Eastwood), a United States Army soldier, as he oversees his unit back at base camp. The team is battle-worn and tired, but still in good spirits. These are men of great character, itching to get back into the fight and stop the enemy at all costs. That’s when John’s superior officer, Colonel Neale, visits the men with an assignment that, of course, has major ramifications for the outcome of the war.

This is the Battle of the Bulge during World War II. For those who do not know, it was Germany’s last major offensive on the Western Front, making every mission critical. In this case, Colonel Neale (Fargo’s Colin Hanks) wants to set up a roadblock to stop the advancing First SS Panzer Division as it storms down the road. This is a unit known for ruthless tactics, including killing women, children, and soldiers who surrender as soon as they put down their weapons and hold up their hands.

Castle’s unit leaves one man behind: a soldier whose hand has been wounded by an enemy bullet. Now one soldier short, the men carry 400 pounds of explosives to complete their mission. After they blow up the surrounding trees to block the road in the Ardennes terrain, they plan to head back to the Allied lines. Of course, things go awry, including a German sniper’s nest that leaves Castle injured, his team killed in action, and carrying only his SCR-300 radio, and over 20 kilometers away from safety.

Lucky Strike Review

Lucky Strike is from director Rod Lurie, a West Point graduate, former U.S. Army air defense artillery officer, and former film critic turned filmmaker. This is Lurie’s ninth feature film in a career with some impressive landmarks, including the Joan Allen and Jeff Bridges film The Contender and one of 2019’s best efforts, The Outpost. Lurie’s films take a keen eye to American institutions under stress, from the political to the military-industrial complex.

Lucky Strike is a mainstream, middle-of-the-road fit for the kind of films Eastwood has found himself in as of late. This is a generic action picture that hardly stands out, more akin to Behind Enemy Lines than incredible true-story films like Black Hawk Down or Lone Survivor. This is the type of movie that wants to shock you, putting a premium on momentum and spectacle rather than the moral or institutional cost of war.

We hardly get to know Scott Eastwood‘s Castle as a man, nor his fellow soldiers. That may be fine, with poetry-in-motion films like The Thin Red Line, nameless faces never to be seen or heard from again. We learn nothing about Castle beyond the old trope that he has a wife and a child back home, lacking any three-dimensional quality and serving as an homage to John Wayne-like characters from decades prior. Castle doesn’t even seem to be bothered by anyone he comes across who is killed, which doesn’t align with the homage the film is trying to emulate.

Is Lucky Strike worth watching?

That issue, among others, stems from the script by longtime Lurie collaborator Mark Frydman. For one, there is no suspense over whether Eastwood’s character will survive, since the Battle of the Bulge section of the film, which makes up the majority of the story, is presented as a flashback. In the present day, Castle visits a woman played by Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor (King Richard) over the holidays. The result is an action film with no tension, nuance, or convoluted backstory that is pure cornball.

Lucky Strike is not worth watching, and that is before we even consider that the film shares its name with a current cigarette brand, which makes me question whether Big Tobacco financed it to begin with. Frankly, I am shocked Frydman did not write the final scene with Castle and a German soldier bonding over a drag from a coffin nail before calling an end to the war. The film is perfectly serviceable, if that genre is your thing, and so is Eastwood, but everyone involved is floundering in material beneath their talents.

You can watch Lucky Strike exclusively in theaters on June 26th!

Lucky Strike Review: Scott Eastwood Leads a Well-Meaning Cinematic Misfire