I just watched the new film The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, and I have a few concerns. First of all, the title is way too long. With 12 syllables, I don't know anyone in my life who would even listen to me long enough to say that title out loud. Director and screenwriter, Guy Ritchie has made a platform for himself making lightly comedic, male ensemble, action films from The Gentleman (2019) to The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015). But his latest film does not inject any new life or energy into the historical action sub-genre.
This film is adapted from the 2015 nonfiction book by Damien Lewis called The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare How Churchill's Secret Warriors Set Europe Ablaze and Gave Birth to Modern Black Ops. (Yes, that's the full title.) British author Damien Lewis also wrote the 2014 nonfiction book, Churchill's Secret Warriors The Explosive True Story of the Special Forces Desperadoes of WWII.
Actor Henry Cavill (Argylle, 2024) leads a group of convicted criminals on a sailing trip from London to an island off the west coast of Africa in the 1940s to blow up a Nazi ship keeping the Atlantic ocean mainly under Hitler's control. But these criminals have to avoid crossing paths with other British fighters, or else their secret mission will be exposed.
Trying to combine the urbane attitudes of Mission Impossible, The Suicide Squad, and James Bond films makes this exotic, clandestine adventure feel like a team of high school football players desperately trying to be serious. All the masculine, handsome, main characters are "too cool for school", so none of them look like they're having any fun, and none of them are different from each other.
The only distinguishing difference between the team is what kind of violent talents they have. One is good with a bow and arrow, one is good with explosives, one is good with navigating and ship driving....and I can't remember the rest.
Even the action-packed finale is edited so shoddily, with so many brief moments in the dark, the only thoughts I kept thinking were, "Huh?" and, "What was that? What just happened?" The ample scenes of gun shots, explosions, and stabbing bring some exciting moments to this film. Male, hetero, action lovers will likely be glued to their seats in a scene where the cagey femme fatale, played by Eiza Gonzalez (Godzilla vs. Kong, 2021), shows off her gun skills using empty bottles for target practice on a sunny beach.
But The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is filled with people who are not trying hard enough at all to give viewers something new, personal, or interesting.
