Netflix war drama 'The Mosquito Bowl' opens in theaters ahead of streaming launch
The film, starring Bill Skarsgård and Nicholas Galitzine, begins its theatrical run with a 36% Rotten Tomatoes rating and will arrive on Netflix on November 25.
Netflix's war epic "The Mosquito Bowl" opened in U.S. theaters on Oct. 30, two weeks before its scheduled streaming debut on Nov. 25. The 127-minute picture, directed by Peter Berg, dramatizes a true World War II episode in which former college football players enlisted in the Marine Corps after the attack on Pearl Harbor and later staged a football game on Christmas Eve before the Battle of Okinawa.
Critical response has been mixed. Rotten Tomatoes lists a 36% approval rating based on 14 reviews. Critics noted that Berg's action-heavy direction does not compensate for what they described as a thin script and underdeveloped characters. Flickering Myth called the movie a "sensory war experience" but said it falters in other areas, while Collider gave it 6 out of 10, labeling it a "by-the-books film that adds very little new to the canon of war epics."
"A movie well worth seeing not as just another war movie but rather as one that should make any leader think hard about the human price paid every time they start one," wrote Deadline.
"Berg delivered a surprisingly powerful antiwar movie with The Mosquito Bowl," noted Punch Drunk Critics in a 3.5-out-of-5 review.
MovieWeb concluded that the film is "immediately reminiscent of Friday Night Lights" and will likely please its intended audience as an "entertaining blockbuster."
The cast includes Nicholas Galitzine as John McLaughry, Bill Skarsgård as Bob Bauman, Ray Nicholson as Tony Butkovich and Tom Francis as David Schreiner. Audience reactions will be measured after the theatrical run, with the broader viewership expected to form once the film becomes available on Netflix.