The Mosquito Bowl review: A competently made anti-war film that lacks emotional resonance

Peter Berg helms this adaptation of Buzz Bissinger 2022 non-fiction book about a story from the Pacific theatre of WWII.

Nicholas Galitzine as John McLaughry, Tom Francis as Dave Schreiner, Bill Skarsgård as Bob Bauman and Ray Nicholson as Tony Butkovich in The Mosquito Bowl.

Kane Skennar/Netflix ©2026

Published: Monday, 9 November 2026 at 2:04 pm

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A star rating of 3 out of 5.

"This is war. This is real war." So screams an officer at his men as they disembark into the Pacific waters near Japanese-occupied land in November 1943, the first of several hellish, harrowing scenes in Peter Berg's well-crafted, if slightly pedestrian, WWII drama The Mosquito Bowl. With bullets flying, bombs exploding and men screaming, it is the beginnings of the bloody Battle of Tarawa, with Berg throwing everything at the screen as US Marines are plunged into their worst nightmare.

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The chances are you’ll think of the not-dissimilar opening sequence in Steven Spielberg's landmark D-Day landings tale Saving Private Ryan. Already, these men are seen going through their Parris Island basic training, reminiscent of Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket. Later, they will engage in the Battle of Guadalcanal, which of course featured heavily in Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red Line. It would be unfair to claim Berg’s film is derivative, but other, greater, filmmakers have combed this territory before.

The nub of Berg's film is that it's a true story. Following the devastating events of Pearl Harbour in 1941, four American college football stars decide to enlist. Brown University’s John McLaughry (Nicholas Galitzine) is our way into the story, although he's soon mingling with the likes of the charismatic star tackle Bob Bauman (Bill Skarsgård), "touchdown" Tony Butkovich (Ray Nicholson, son of Jack) and Wisconsin Badgers player Dave Schreiner (Tom Francis). Bonded by their love of the game, they find courage under fire.

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Adapted from the 2022 book by Buzz Bissinger, The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II, the film hinges on the fact that the boys are requested to play a football game in front of the troops to boost morale (apparently, the arrival of comic legend Bob Hope, seen briefly, was not enough to lift spirits). Berg, who also subtly mixes in real footage where appropriate, knows a thing or two about college football, having made the 2004 film Friday Night Lights, which spawned a successful TV series.

Sadly, the game itself isn’t quite the morale-booster the film needs, perhaps because by this point we've seen so much blood and guts: bodies set alight by flamethrowers and savage killings of faceless, nameless Japanese soldiers. Within the carnage, and there is a lot of it, there are moments of nice observation from Berg. A snake merrily slithering through the jungle. A glimpsed photo of Emperor Hirohito, presumably held dear to one of the Japanese, who like the Americans, have little idea what they’re fighting for.

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"Everybody wants everybody's oil," suggests one character, in a rare moment of analysis of just why the world is at war. But largely, The Mosquito Bowl is a boots-on-the-ground film, that ultimately leads us to the bloody conflict at Okinawa. Sadly, as authentic as the performances are, it'd be hard to say you're left with a real sense of these characters, beyond pining for their loved ones. Butkovich, played with real energy by Nicholson, is the most memorable of the four, but the rest, even Galitzine’s McLaughry melt into the background.

As impressive as the staging is – the battles brilliantly edited by Garrett Donnelly and Jon Otazua – it's not the most emotional of films. "Death doesn't pick fucking sides," we’re told, and perhaps it's this sheer randomness of who survives and who does not that makes it hard to invest in the characters. Undeniably, The Mosquito Bowl is a competently made anti-war film, with Berg drawing on the skillset he's acquired on disaster films like Deepwater Horizon to pull it off. But as muscular as it is, you're left wishing there was more invest in. Even the usually exuberant Skarsgård is on muted form.

The Mosquito Bowl is released in select UK cinemas from Friday 13 November and on Netflix on Wednesday 25 November.

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Authors

James Mottram

James Mottram is a London-based film critic, journalist, and author.

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