Love him or hate him, Guy Ritchie is a work horse who consistently operates well within his signature style. This doesn’t always knock it out of the park, but you have to respect someone that knows their voice well and uses it often. “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare” is very much a Guy Ritchie film, packed with zippy violence, stacked cast, and quippy characters oozing with British charm. If you’re not already game for what Ritchie brings to the table, then this “inspired by true events,” World War II affair probably won’t do all that much for you. But if you’ve liked even half of his filmography, and ever asked yourself what his version of “Inglorious Basterds” but British and silly would be, then this movie is for you.
These are the hottest people you’ve ever seen being the most charming they’ve ever been gleefully killing Nazis for 2 hours. If you’re in the mood for it, it is perfect, unadulterated, nonsensical fun. And finally, someone one has figured out how to properly use Elza Gonzalez.
Directed, produced, and co-written by Guy Ritchie with Paul Tamasy, Eric Johnson, and Arash Amel serving as screenwriters, “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare” follows a covert team of ragtag military men tasked with destroying a supply tanker for German U-boots that have all but shut out allies from crossing the Atlantic. On the brink of surrender, these men considered too extreme for regular military conduct have one chance to turn the tide of the war before it’s too late and the Germans dominate the open waters indefinitely. Espionage, sabotage, and some ungentlemanly conduct is what it will take for our men to succeed. The film stars Henry Cavill (“The Witcher“), Elza Gonzalez, Alan Ritchson (“Reacher“), Henry Golding (“Crazy Rich Asians“), Alex Pettyfer, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Babs Olusanmokun, Til Schweiger (ironically playing a Nazi officer this time around), and Cary Elwes.
The cast is as big as the ideas; pushing the limits of the based on a true story genre. It is glaringly obvious from the very first scene that this is probably not how things unfolded, and it is even more apparent when it shows the real life photos of the team as the film’s epilogue. It is heavily fictionalized, but if you’re all in a movie with Ritchson and Cavill killing nazis for two hours, it’s a suspension of disbelief you’re probably already on board with. In stark contrast to “The Covenant,” (which is sneakily good and I highly recommend it) with Ritchie returning to his roots grounded in actual events even if it’s told in Guy Ritchie fantasy. What transpires is just a lot of damn fun with characters that are clearly have a lot of damn fun making the film. both Cavill and RItchson have embodied stone faced, grunt communication men for most of their recent stints to match their stone chiseled frames. It is wildly refreshing to see them both let loose with charm in “Ungentlemanly Warfare,” shedding their brute force for straight up anarchy with a smile.
Sure, there’s a repetitiveness to its content, and some of the editing is unnecessarily erratic. Though obviously in line with Ritchie’s visual style, it doesn’t quite serve the material as well. It’s a little too complicated for such a simple story, and “Ungentlemanly Warfare” wears too much of its inspiration on its sleeve to feel cohesive. it often feels like a collection of films rather than one complete story as we follow 3 different groups of people working on the same operation with extremely unexplored connectivity. Motivations and agendas get a little lost in the shuffle, and things start to unravel quite a bit as it heads towards its climax. The repetitive nature of the mowing down Nazis with ease and very little stakes in terms of our characters not actually making it out alive drags in the last act, and the narrative doesn’t quite necessitate the 2 hour runtime. “Ungentlemanly Warfare” is ultimately surface, having very little to say beneath the hot people killing Nazis framework with which it is built. For all its charm and fantasy, it starts to lose its excitement as a compelling story, which, if Ritchie went deeper could actually be extremely compelling.
Of course, none of this matters if that’s not what you came for. And I’ll be honest, I didn’t sign up for anything more than what this film is giving me. It really does want to just be a simple, fun, dumb popcorn movie that happens to cover a pivotal point in history. “Ungentlemanly Warfare” may be inspired work (and that work is ostensibly better) and not interested in a whole lot of its subject matter, but it is genuinely having so much fun for itself that whether or not what is happening truly matters ends up not really mattering in the slightest. I said it earlier, but this is is the best Elza Gonzalez has ever been. Ritchie seems to have unlocked her capabilities beyond just how stunningly beautiful she is, and she’s allowed to actually play a character that has something to do. She’s as charming as her male cohorts, and despite the film never really being all that clear as to why or what she’s doing on the island, Gonzalez absolutely chews through scenery. I’ve always enjoyed her even in blink and you miss her roles like “Alita: Battle Angel” or generic action damsel in “Bloodshot,” and “Ambulance,” and there was always a sense that she had more to give than the roles she was given.
Here, Gonzalez really gets to let loose and do what she does best. She makes the most of her screen time, and this film truly showcases her seductive charm and beautiful singing voice. Did you know she was a singer, too? Probably not, since Ritchie has been the only director to let her rip through a gorgeous party sequence while singing “Mack the Knife” in German/Yiddish. I don’t want to mislead anyone: “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare” is very much about the hot boy crew of charming (and yes, sometimes shirtless) men, but she’s just such a great addition and all that rooting for her to thrive seems to have finally paid dividends. There are too many characters to highlight everyone, which is often the case for a Ritchie film so those that are given a bit more screen time and make the most of it deserve to be praised. All except Rory Kinnear as Churchill. I love me some Kinnear (as I am one of few defenders of Garland’s “Men”) but my god, it may be one of the worst Churchill impersonators/performances I’ve ever seen. Thankfully he’s used sparingly, but c’mon Ritchie. Do better.
“The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare” isn’t the best of Ritchie, nor is it even the best of its kind. Despite being based on actual events, it borrows a little too heavily from other, better films that do WWII fantasy or revisionist history significantly better. But fun Ritchie is the best Ritchie, enough to overshadow the film’s faults and deliver a rather amusing and enjoyable time at the cinema. Because honestly, why wouldn’t you want to watch hot people mow down nazis like butter for a few hours? There may be a better story lurking beneath the surface, but “Ungentlemanly Warfare” in its nonchalant approach to real life events is really just a good old time at the movies.
Not everything has to subvert the genre, and not every movie has to make you think. Sometimes we just wanna watch hulking heartthrobs and drop dead gorgeous dames blow some shit up and gleefully wreak havoc. And “Ungentlemanly Warfare” has all of that in spades.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to figure out how to get Elza Gonzalez to sing “Mack the Knife” to me at my next birthday party.
Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars
“The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare” is in theaters April 19th. You can watch the trailer below.
