It’s the story of a young Texan who joins the Army at the height of the Iraq war in 2004 to escape punishment for youthful misdeeds. British newcomer Joe Alwyn ably plays the young American. I expect we will see more of him down the road. His sister Kathryn features Kristen Stewart (“Twilight”, series, “Snow White”. An array of supporting actors play soldiers in his Big Red One Bravo squad including Staff Sergeant Shroom, none other than Vin Diesel.
I expected a lot of battle scenes and drama but there is little of that. Rather the story focuses on a tour of the squad in between deployments. They are paraded out during half time shows at sporting events to acknowledge the sacrifices made by our military.
Steve Martin sadly is cast as a “Jerry Jones” surrogate, owner of a fictitious losing professional football team. It all gets very cheesy and cliche and it produced more than a few winces from me. I felt bad for Martin for having taken the role.
Ang Lee is a wonderful director but this effort will not go down as one of his best but rather I expect his worst.
I would not recommend that you rush out to see this movie nor wait for Netflix.
