The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare

Some good performances and a good story but it's let down by poor pacing and an almost complete lack of flair. It's feels like an 'action movie by numbers'. It doesn't have the charm of Kelly's Heroes, the dignity of The Guns of Navarone, the credibility of The Longest Day or the sheer star power and likeability of The Great Escape. If you're bored and want to watch Alan Ritchson play a Scandinavian Jack Reacher going on a nazi killing spree with the help of some friends then you might enjoy it. The fact that it's based on true events doesn't make it feel any more believable than any number of b-movie war films. It *could* have been great but it's a misfire. Perhaps a director who approached the subject more seriously would have had more success. Guy Ritchie seemed torn between doing a 'proper' war movie and doing his usual stylish blokey silliness, and the result is that this is neither.

The absolute worst thing about it is Rory Kinear who is horribly miscast as Winston Churchill. He's shocking. He looks nothing like him, despite mountains of prosthetics and he sounds like a northern comic doing a bad impression.

This movie was kind of what I expected it to be. As of recently guy Ritchie has had a habit of frequently pumping out mediocore action films. But this one takes the cake. There were good elements. Henry Cavill was really good and without a doubt carried this movie.

And he worked really well with his co-actors, most of who were extremely unremarkable. This movie also gives us what is probably the worst Churchill preformance ever. It was kinda predictable but at the same time its "based" on a true story. But my god it was horribly written. When Churchill said "what are you, some sort of ministry of ungentlemanly warfare" I felt my last brain cells die. 6.3/10.

And it honestly should have been. With this nice ensemble and decent budget, great production design, and a director who in theory definitely should have the chops, THE MINISTRY OF UNGENTLEMANLY WARFARE had everything it needed and more.

And yet, it misses the mark. Much of it has to do with the direction, I'm afraid. A lack of spirit and inspiration can be felt throughout the film, sometimes worse than other times, but neither the shots he called nor his direction of the actors are worthy of Ritchie's potential. The script could have used a bit more polishing, especially concerning the dialogue, but it's really mostly the practical aspects where this falls flat.

If you're a native German speaker, you will also notice how bad the fake Germans actually are. They should have been dubbed, but nobody seemed to care. Even Til Schweiger messed up some lines in German (probably drunk on set, as usual) - nobody cared.

What also made the film worse than it could have been is the score. Someone told the composer to go for "Schifrin meets Morricone", I guess, and what he delivered was a weak attempt at copying both. No swing, no drama, no feeling whatsoever. Just flat and boring, matching the direction perfectly.

That being said, you can still kill a bit of time watching this, since Cavill, Ritchson, et al are very likeable and have a lot of charming presence. Locations are nice, the DoP did a great job with the lighting, and Eiza González has a great singing performance (refreshingly with no audible pitch correction, but as a professional singer with an amazing voice she really doesn't need any), even though the arrangement and interpretation of the famous "Mack The Knife" is quite horrible.

But if anything, this has made me wish for a more silly WW2 comedy with Cary Elwes in the lead. I'd buy that for a dollar.

As a fan of both Henry Cavill and Guy Ritchie, I was thrilled to find an early access showing of this movie at a nearby theater.

Ungentlemanly Warfare looked to be a good time, and indeed it is! It's a neat story and they made the telling of it fun. Thankfully it isn't goofy. It's not nonstop jokes, but it has a good sense of humor and I heard a good bit of chuckling in the theater throughout the movie, much of it coming from myself.

You can tell Cavill had fun with this role. He shows off some range as his character is very different from the brooding muscle man that many people associate him with. It was delightful watching him do comedy. I haven't seen much of Alan Ritchson's work, but it was easy to see why he has such a growing fanbase. He's the muscle in this movie and proves to be a great action star. The whole cast is great and they give us a lot of fun characters.

Action-comedies seem to be Guy Ritchie's specialty. He maintains a good balance of action and comedy and works so well with large casts as he lets every character feel like they matter to the story.

I guess when you set out to make a film based on a true story-- not inspired by, but actually based it-- you're constrained by events.

Unfortunately, there wasn't much tension or ever a sense of our heroes having met their match.

The dialogue was occasionally clever, and the acting was ..fine. Not a lot was asked of this talented cast. Also, as often happens with ensembles, we really only get to know our characters on the most superficial level. (Ensembles need franchises to tease out individuals' personal stories). Hard to be invested in their survival.

And finally, what a waste of Henry Cavill. Cavill has a great face for this sort of role. Smirks, frowns and grins were swallowed up in a curiously overgrown mustache and beard. Why hire That Face and then hide it completely? Similarly, he spends the entire film, bundled up in multiple shabby layers of clothing. We're they trying to hide his physique so he wouldn't look too much like his costar Ritchson? Not a problem as Ritchson has at least 3 inches and 25lbs of muscle on Cavill any day of the week.

They could have hired any one of a dozen other actors for the role if they didn't plan to let us SEE Cavill. And paid a lot less for them.

I came away annoyed by the promise of Cavill unfulfilled and by a storyline that wouldn't have made for an interesting episode of The A Team.

But Alan Ritchson was great. He clearly had way more fun with this character than he gets to have with Reacher.