Guy Ritchie’s new movie “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare” is a fun movie that seems to stray pretty far away from its based on a true story tagline.
The movie follows the true story of Gus March-Phillipps and his band of misfit soldiers on a secret mission to destroy the German U-Boats on the Spanish controlled island of Fernando Po in World War II. They must use unconventional and sometimes dangerous techniques to complete their mission all while Spies on Fernando Po must dodge the Nazi occupation and Winston Churchill works with high ranking military officers to circumvent the eyes of the British government.
This movie is based on a true story, but it is clear just from the poster that Guy Ritchie made some major creative changes to the story. The biggest one is Henry Cavill playing a British World War II officer and making all of the cast not resemble the real people they are playing. This is by no means a negative, but if you are a history buff you will probably leave disappointed by this.
This isn’t like most other true story World War II movies because it is a straight action movie. There is little to no drama in the movie and the main focus is on Guy Ritchie’s customary stylized approach to action sequences. Most, if not all, of the action sequences are high octane and a lot of fun to watch. The physicality of characters is also a point where the movie strays away from proper portrayal of operation, but nonetheless is done really well because of how muscular some of the actors are.
This is an action comedy at heart and it soaks into every aspect of the movie. Gus March-Phillipps is a snarky, quick witted rebel and each character in his posse has a quirk that is played for laughs throughout the movie. The comedy is never demeaning to any of the characters and most of the jokes end up landing because of how charismatic the cast is, particularly Henry Cavill and Alan Ritchson.
Overall, this is a fun movie that plays out like a typical action movie. It hits all the needed beats and doesn’t overstay its welcome. If you’re a big Guy Ritchie fan you will most likely like this and I would definitely recommend it unless you are looking to actually learn about the history of this secret operation.
Directed by Guy Ritchie
Starring: Henry Cavill, Alan Ritchson, Eiza González, Alan Ritchson, Henry Golding, Alex Pettyfer, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Babs Olusanmokun, Cary Elwes, Til Schweiger
Rated R
Runtime: 120 minutes
My Rating: ★★★½
