THE MINISTRY OF UNGENTLEMANLY WARFARE 😊

PREMISE

The British military recruits a small group of highly skilled soldiers to strike against German forces behind enemy lines during World War II.

THE GOOD STUFF

THE SOLDIERS- Henry Cavill, Henry Golding, Hero Tiffin, Alan Ritchson, and Alex Pettyfer make up the soldiers of the Ministry. These five men are the nigh-unstoppable Nazi killing wrecking crew that each have the kind of borderline slapstick kind of wacky, yet brutally savage characteristics that you often find with characters in Guy Ritchie movies. These actors have amazing chemistry, the group itself is swagged out, and every action scene they have is on point. Ritchson has the lion’s share of the brutal action stuff and as you may have seen in the action show reacher…brutal action stuff seems to be his forte.

These characters are a lot of fun to follow. Modern-day DIRTY DOZEN kind of vibes here.

NARRATIVE FLUIDITY- I am a bigger fan of Guy Ritchie than most people, and that is for one particular reason: Fluidity. Guy Ritchie has a way of telling a story with complicated elements, and really breaking those elements down to practically bullet points that are easy enough for the audience to follow. He often takes lots of expositional dialogue and accompanies it with a visual explanation of what a character is talking about. I wish more directors did this. This makes the film go down a lot easier.

This is a story about an ambush to steal a supply ship from Nazis with an undermanned crew. A lot of expeditional dialogue goes on explaining why this is important, AND how pivotal it is to hindering the Nazis for the rest of the war…and yet it is not hard to follow at all.

EIZA GONZALEZ- This is a film that provides as much of a star vehicle for Gonzalez as I’ve seen so far. Between this film and the film ambulance from last year, Gonzales has proven that she could be a leading lady if given the right thing. She’s given A LOT to do here (even a musical number) and she knocks it all out. She is supremely talented.

THE BAD STUFF

THE SPY STUFF- There are two intertwining stories that are happening in this film, one involving the aforementioned soldiers, and one involving the two British spies played by Gonzalez and Babs Olusanmokun. It’s not that their story is bad or uninteresting or anything like that…the problem is it’s not even remotely as fun as following the soldiers. I’m pretty sure there are many movies that involve characters going undercover to get information from a powerful figure, and having many complications along the way. Many movies. And what you get here is very common stuff that can be compared to a lot of other films.

Everyone is good. And again, the story isn’t bad. But one could get the impression about 20 minutes into this movie that they were not getting what they paid to see because of all the other stuff going on that doesn’t involve most of the people on the movie poster.

And when you cut back to the soldiers’ side of things, there’s just kind of this feeling of “why is this story not about them?” That you can’t help but feel.

THE UGLY STUFF

Nothing. The ending might be a little bit too abrupt for some. But ultimately it’s…fine.

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A lot of people that I know have gotten on me for my take on the Quentin Tarantino film inglorious bastErds, a film I really liked but it makes the same mistakes that this film makes. The exact same mistakes…

1. The trailer sells you on one thing and gives you multiple different story angles of other things.
2. There’s way too much time spent on the villain. Even though this makes sense to do in both films in terms of the story, the vibes feel dramatically different every time we cut to a completely different storyline.
3. The main character of the film isn’t who you think it is.

All that being said, this is a very enjoyable war film. Guy Ritchie is a man who knows how to make practically any genre into a popcorn film while imposing his very idiosyncratic style.  

THE MINISTRY OF UNGENTLEMANLY WARFARE is in theaters now.