Title – The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (2024)

Director – Guy Ritchie (The Covenant) 

Cast – Henry Cavill, Alan Ritchson, Alex Pettyfer, Eiza González

Plot – A group of specialist British soldiers are recruited to team up in the midst of World War 2 and head behind enemy lines on a variety of top secret missions aimed at disrupting the Nazi regime.   

“I’m not leaving until I have a barrel full of Nazi hearts”

Review by Eddie on 06/08/2024

Someone must have put something in Guy Ritchie’s water?

Pumping out films like they’re a simple procession, Ritchie’s 6th feature film since 2019 is an extremely Hollywoodized version of a true life World War 2 tale and a latest in a line of box office duds that suggests Ritchie might need to take a breather between projects to ensure some quality control over what is currently a scattershot approach by the filmmaker at material that is ranging from great to merely passable. 

After failing to ignite the box office with his newly minted cult favourite The Gentleman, underseen crime thriller Wrath of Man, the mediocre Operation Fortune and the criminally underrated The Covenant, Ritchie would have been hoping that his Henry Cavill starring The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare would change his fortunes but after its distributor Lionsgate decided to skip out on releasing the film theatrically in most territories, this $60 million plus film has managed a paltry $20 million worldwide gross, ensuring many will struggle to even know it exists over the coming months. 

Starting out promising enough, Ritchie seems to be onto a winner with Warfare appearing to harbour the directors inventive visual style and quick wit but this intriguing WW2 tale that is centred around a roughish group of soldiers overseen by Cavill’s moustached Gus March-Phillips, quickly begins to merely become a procession of events that aren’t overly exciting or engaging, feeling very much like a film that was just made rather than loved and crafted into something that would’ve become a must-see event. 

Gaining so much early in his career from his energetic creativity, character creation and stylistic approaches, Warfare seems tailor-made for Ritchie to mine the material that made him one of the most unique voices in the industry but there’s nothing in the film that breaks out. 

Whether it be the finely staged but far from memorable action set pieces, the interesting on the surface if paper thin characters and their development/growth (if there is any?) or the seemingly thrilling story that starts to lose its lustre well before the two hour run-time has concluded, Warfare feels like a genuine rush-job that was able to tick some boxes along the way as it came together, but failed to sit back and do more with its ample potential. 

In the most basic of terms Warfare feels like something that one could call a bargain basement Guy Ritchie film, it has all the ingredients and possibilities of the directors most well-liked works but none of the final deliverables.

When the film starts with Cavill and Reacher breakout star Alan Ritchson playing dumb with a boatload of Nazi’s that have boarded their yacht, one suspects we’re only just getting started on a rollicking journey that never from that moment on bothers to reach for another gear and when a bunch of wild cowboys dispatching Nazi’s becomes boring, you know a film has failed to ignite. 

Final Say – 

Reaching a point in his directional career where you hope he can spend some more TLC on his projects before unleashing them on a clearly uninterested audience, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare looked set to be a winner for Guy Ritchie and his fans but despite being watchable, there’s little here to get excited about, making this another mid at best film from a director whose been known to do a lot more with less. 

2 1/2 tight t-shirts out of 5