Debuting in the UK after a long wait as Guy Ritchie films
tend to be lately, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is an ode to
the boy’s own adventure movies of World War Two; Where Eagles Dare and
its ilk. It has the snarky, tongue in cheek humour that you’d expect from the
ever-present journeyman, the kind of cockney, laddish charm that makes his work
either irresistible or a turn off depending on your humour. Here the film casts
Henry Cavill as rogue agent Ian Fleming, author of the James Bond novels,
in the spy-espionage role on the eve of America’s entering to the European theatre
to ensure that the German U-Boats are crippled so that the yanks can cross the
channel without getting blown to smithereens. It’s a story allegedly taken from
Winston Churchill’s private files, and Rory Kinnear steps in to play the man
himself – in full caricature mode, because would you expect nothing less from
Ritchie himself?
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| Eiza Gonzalez in The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare |
The result is a flawed delight. Like Tarantino and Inglorious
Basterds, Ritchie has a love affair with these war movies and he faithfully
recreates the tropes; of a small team on the run behind enemy lines, a Casablanca-esque
party scene with Eiza Gonzalez on terrific form as a Jewish singer/real-life
actor Majorie Stewart, who went onto star in multiple Hollywood movies in her
own right following this, and an impressive ensemble that includes some of
Hollywood’s most attractive men – there’s Alan Ritchson, Henry Golding and Alex
Pettyfer on top form – watching Ritchson mow down Nazis with bow and arrows is
a delight. It’s a sham that the film doesn’t quite feel as proficient or accomplished
as Ritchie’s bigger work; almost like it was a side, made-for-tv project and in
a way, with its release on Amazon Prime Video in the UK, it kind of feels like
that was what it was.
The tension isn’t there at all – you’ll know these guys will
come out on top and they do too, there’s a swagger to their charm. The film
delights in killing Nazis as all good movies should – but making them more of a
threat would’ve been nice, they just feel like canon-fodder here. The film is
at its best when it lets Ritchson unleash havoc on the Nazis with his bow and
arrow; a unique twist that allows Ritchie to have plenty of creativity with the
camerawork. There are moments where the film sings and it almost works as a piece.
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| Hero Fiennes Tiffin and Henry Cavill in The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare |
On top of that, the lighting in The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is not good. The finale is too dark and cumbersome to see the film’s big set piece; and it’s a film that wants you to have fun but never really does have fun itself – it’s all characters joking and laughing about they’re having fun without the script actually buying into it. It’s good to see that Cary Elwes is in another role as a spy/espionage figure as he was oh-so-good in Dead Reckoning – Part One, but perhaps the biggest misstep of all is not releasing this film in cinemas in the UK – it feels like tailor-made for an easy afternoon watch and would’ve done well especially with the older crowd who are naturally drawn to war films, but there’s enough there with the cast especially and their easy-to-like factor to lure in a younger audience. Golding is charming, Cavill is rogueish, and the humour is playful and superb with moments of times where it allows itself to go back into the madhouse.
Full credit to Ritchie at least – ever since he made his blockbuster “one
for them” with Aladdin, he’s remembered to actually get the chance to make
his own films and cash those cheques. Even if his own movies have been a bit
too safe – Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre was a chore at the best of
times. However, I adored The Covenant – a gripping character study of a
military thriller. His chameleonic effort never allows him to stay in one genre
for too long – he’s often been billed as the “British Tarantino” and there are
elements of that here, but The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare almost
feels too confined to the laws of history to ever have any fun, there’s no
alternate-reality madness that ramps things up a notch and instead, this almost
feels a touch too burden to the ‘men on a mission’ movies of old to ever run
the risk of reinventing the wheel.
