It's more mash than mashup, because its hard to tell a good story about one topic, much less three. The book was not easy to follow as it tries to be satire a la The Bonfire of the Vanities. Not a good movie compliment, as Bonfire is a noted flop of a movie... but you get the point.
And when Hollywood gets their hooks into a story about.. Hollywood, then it really goes off the rails. To play an American hero, get an unknown Brit (Joe Allwyn). The story revolving around the Dallas Cowboys game gets lost after there is no NFL participation (except for decent cameos by Richard Sherman and J.J. Watt). So we have a Cowboy-ish look. Steve Martin plays Jerry Jones/Norm, the halftime entertainment is a Beyonce-less version of Destiny's Child (we never see their faces) so it gets a Made for TV movie style.
Best performance is certainly Garrett Hedlund as Sgt. David Dime, the leader of the pack. His shading from the book get left out and he's the secondary hero to Billy. The Bravo Squad is famous due to its battle being caught on camera, and so that video does come out during the movie, at a decent time. The squad is somewhat of a fish out of water, being honored for a traumatic war experience, being wooed by strangers, and half wanting to enjoy the moment and half wanting to go back to the home military base, where they know what to expect, good or bad.
* * * of 5
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