What would the movie industry be without Guy Ritchie? For the past few decades, he has consistently produced strong entertainment that audiences have loved (not including a certain romantic comedy starring Madonna). Ever since his live-action remake of Aladdin, Hollywood has given Ritchie the green light to make whatever the hell he wants. Ritchie seems most at home in the action genre, making films like Wrath of Man, Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre, and The Covenant, and he’s back on the big screen once again this year with The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.
This spy action comedy is based on a true story from Winston Churchill’s declassified files from 2016. We follow the Special Operations Executive, a covert British World War II organization tasked with sinking Nazi U-boats. At the front of the battle is Gus March-Phillipps (Henry Cavill) and his trusty team of badasses ready to take on any Nazi that gets in their way. Ritchie occupies a genre of film that never seems to get old: killing Nazis in bloody fashion. Steven Spielberg did this with two of his four Indiana Jones movies. Hell, Quentin Tarantino makes a meal out of Nazi Flambé in Inglourious Basterds and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
No matter which director enters this film genre, it’s hard to get tired of seeing Nazis get brutally destroyed. Ritchie executes this with brutality and a strong charm. He brings together ensemble casts like no other and we have many strong actors here. Cavill returns to the big screen again in 2024 after we last saw him in Matthew Vaughn’s (Ritchie’s longtime collaborator) film Argylle. He has a good amount of fun in this role, as does Alan Ritchson. It’s fun to see Cavill and Ritchson, two actors known for playing stern musclebound heroes (Superman and Jack Reacher, respectively) cut loose a little.
Ritchson in particular steals the show. He has many awesome moments in the action set pieces with a bow and arrow. He stands out amongst the rest mainly due to his weapon of choice and it’s fittingly fun to see him kick ass. The same way The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare features Ritchie reteaming with Cavill after The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Ritchie also reteams with Henry Golding after The Gentlemen. Golding is a nice presence in the movie, as is Hero Fiennes Tiffin in a role where he can finally break free from the After movies. Alex Pettyfer also does an acceptable job in one of his first mainstream roles in about a decade. Some may remember him from the early 2010s in films like I Am Number Four and Magic Mike. He’s back and he gets his moment.
The issue here is that the characters don’t stand out amongst themselves. We don’t learn very much about any of the people in this story. The film is much more driven by plot and action than by character. Therefore, it’s not always easy to get invested in them individually. They’re not as memorable as they should be, and Ritchson’s character is the only one who I can imagine being a fan favorite. Furthermore, there’s another plot in this movie that feels very different from the rest. The plot that follows our ragtag team of Nazi hunters is very much like an action comedy. There’s another plot surrounding two spies played by Eiza González and Babs Olusanmokun.
While the plot with the other spies isn’t bad, it’s much more based in dialogue-driven espionage. There’s more tension in those sequences, and they’re enjoyable from that standpoint, but they feel pretty distant from the main scenes with the other characters. Furthermore, the stakes can feel quite stagnant throughout that first hour. We know what they’re trying to do, but there isn’t always a lot of momentum to propel this narrative forward. Furthermore, the villain is a weak spot. Heinrich Luhr (Til Schweiger) is said to be the only thing worse than a Nazi. There isn’t much worse than a Nazi, but that’s as far as his development goes. We don’t see what makes him worse. He doesn’t perform very many evil actions over the course of the movie.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s easy to root for his death, but he doesn’t stand out like he should, the same way many of our heroes don’t always stand out amongst themselves. Nevertheless, Ritchie’s direction always has a lot of life and energy to it. There’s an action set piece near the middle of The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare where Nazis are just getting destroyed left and right. The final act also delivers tons of that. However, it feels like the movie could have benefitted from one more of these sequences since the story and mission are not as compelling as he may have intended. The film picks up considerably in the second half, and I’ll never turn down a Jerry Bruckheimer-produced theatrically released action movie. Ritchie’s still got it, and he won’t let you forget it.
SCORE: 6/10
As ComingSoon’s review policy explains, a score of 6 equates to “Decent.” It fails to reach its full potential and is a run-of-the-mill experience.
Disclosure: ComingSoon attended a press screening for our The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare review.
