‘The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare’ Review: Guy Ritchie’s Crowd-Pleasing Pic is a Perfect Match for Henry Cavill’s Charms and Alan Ritchson’s Arms

Rarely has the phrase “based on a true story” been stretched quite as thin as it has in Guy Ritchie’s bloody, bombastic, and wholly entertaining new film, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. Sure, there may have been a covert military operation during World War II involving some marauding castoffs but, among other things, I highly doubt one of them was a towering, bow-wielding Alan Ritchson-type in cute, little glasses who literally removed the hearts of some of his enemies. To say Ungentlemanly Warfare takes some creative liberties would be putting it as lightly as humanly possible. What Ritchie has created is a crowd-pleasing blend of superhero, heist, war, and buddy films that elevates itself to the top of the blockbuster heap. Guy Ritchie has enough of his own sensibility to make you embrace his heightened pastiche (at one point, someone even says, “I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship,” at a gambling den in Africa. It’s, shall we say, not subtle.) The backhanded compliment that has defined Guy Ritchie’s career is that he is “the British Tarantino.” With The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, he has ripped any sense of pomp and circumstance away from his Inglourious Basterds, making a bouncy war movie full of humor, hijinks, and destruction. Ritchie’s underrated craftsmanship combined with beautiful, charming people gloriously laying waste to hordes of Nazis is, unsurprisingly, an absolute blast. Pure popcorn filmmaking hasn’t been done better in 2024.

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare uses recently declassified British military documents as the jumping-off point for its tale of military intrigue. Winston Churchill built a top-secret special forces team allowed to practice, you guessed, ungentlemanly techniques to turn the tide of World War II. In Ungentlemanly Warfare, the team undertakes Operation Postmaster, a mission to sink Nazi ships at the port of Fernando Po, a small island south of Cameroon, to indirectly decimate the presence of German U-Boats in the North Atlantic. Along the way, the crew, led by Gus March-Phillips (Henry Cavill), must navigate Nazi-occupied waters in an unsuspecting fishing vessel and pick up Geoffrey Appleyard (Alex Pettyfer), one of March-Phillips’ most-trusted operatives who was captured by the Nazis on a reconnaissance mission. Meanwhile, at Fernando Po, Agents Marjorie Stewart (Eiza González) and Richard Heron (Babs Olusanmokun) work to set up a grand diversion to give March-Phillips’ crew time and space to complete the mission.

It is the cast of Ungentlemanly Warfare that really makes the movie sing, as the pitter-patter dialogue and physical performances work in tandem to create a thrilling, lived-in world. Guy Ritchie seems to understand Henry Cavill’s appeal more than anyone. After being smothered by the self-seriousness of Zack Snyder’s DC universe, Ritchie unleashed Cavill’s charm in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Cavill is even better in Ungentlemanly Warfare, harnessing a smug, roguish confidence and charisma. He executes physical gags and bounces off of other actors deftly, and his imposing physique really plays in the context of the war story; that is, until he stands next to Alan Ritchson, whose physique could accurately be described as “cartoonishly buff.” Ritchson, whose career breakthrough came on the official TV show of frat houses everywhere in 2010, Blue Mountain State, but reached a whole new level of fame with the recent success of his Amazon actioner, Reacher, has really managed to become an actor worthy of leading man status. Ritchson plays Anders Lassenn, AKA “The Danish Hammer,” a ruthless but surprisingly thoughtful hunter, capable of over-the-top acts of violence and of challenging the biases his fellow operatives hold; and, again, he has cute little glasses, though it is probably just an optical illusion where Ritchson’s unmitigated mass makes a regular pair of glasses look doll-sized. The other standout performer is Eiza González, who combines the classic femme fatale archetype with military competence and a braggadocious assuredness to be the true heart of the film, really. Undercover as an American gold trader, it is her job to seduce the commanding Nazi officer on the island, played by Til Schweiger, whose presence only further brings Inglourious Basterds to mind. González is tasked with the most personal and most taut dialogue scene in the film. Her mission is one of revenge, tinged with loss and anger. That anger is felt throughout, even as González galivants about in beautiful dresses and performs musical numbers. González has a natural star aura and this proves to be a great showcase for her talents.

The film around this great cast is also quite accomplished, with each technical element feeling just a little better than like-kind films. The score composed by Ritchie-regular Christopher Benstead is just a little unique, bringing to mind a grand Western rather than a traditional war film, conflating something like The Magnificent Seven with The Dirty Dozen. Ritchie works with cinematographer Ed Wild to create just a few shots that generate a little tingle because they transcend the bland expectation established by modern blockbusters. The superficial elements are all pretty great and the technical elements are admirable, especially by today’s standards. Ritchie is nothing if not a stylist and we get many of his usual tricks here, transposed into a refreshing new setting.

As recently as last year, it appeared Ritchie may have lost his touch with movies of this ilk. Recent big-budget, heightened endeavors like Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre and Aladdin were far less-accomplished than his more “grown-up” films, Wrath of Man and The Covenant. It appeared Ritchie had turned some sort of corner into more thoughtful, toned-down stoicism. However, with The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, he has recaptured the magic that gripped audiences in the first half of his career. In fact, it even garnered a sincere round of applause in the theater during one of its climactic moments. Crowd-pleasing and energetic, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is a film that is hopefully able to follow through on its promise of a sequel. There is something very familiar about the film, in ways both satisfying and a tad frustrating, but Ritchie imbues enough of himself into the things that he loves to make it wholly his own. This is no Inglourious Bastardization of great films past, but a very modern, loving homage told with an incredible spark and anchored by a bunch of charming, good-looking performers. Even though Ritchie’s style is certainly not classical, he was definitely trying to make ‘em like they used to.

Grade: B+

Lionsgate Films will release The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare only in theaters on April 19.