Movie Review: The Ministry Of Ungentlemanly Warfare (2024)

Genre: War Action  

Director: Guy Ritchie  

Starring: Henry Cavill, Eiza González, Alan Ritchson, Alex Pettyfer, Cary Elwes, Henry Golding  

Running Time: 122 minutes  

Synopsis: In 1941, Nazi Germany's U-boats control the Atlantic Ocean and the United Kingdom stands alone in Europe. Winston Churchill (Rory Kinnear) authorizes a secret commando raid to blow up an Italian U-boat supply ship anchored off the East African coast. Hardened criminal Gus March-Phillipps (Henry Cavill) and Denmark's Anders Lassen (Alan Ritchson) lead the mission, approaching their target by sea. Meanwhile, intelligence agents Marjorie Stewart (Eiza González) and Richard Heron (Babs Olusanmokun) are tasked with distracting the on-shore Nazi commander Heinrich Luhr (Til Schweiger).

What Works Well: Loosely based on the actual World War Two Operation Postmaster, this jovial romp is part throwback to mission-focused war movies, and part just-kill-all-the-Nazis video game style nonsense. Humour is never far from the surface, with the best laughs generated by insatiable killing machine Lassen. The quite brilliant Christopher Benstead music score is a most respectful salute to Ennio Morricone.

What Does Not Work As Well: The mindless entertainment sails dangerously close to a tick-box exercise, with most scenes soullessly borrowed from other movies. The characterizations are thin enough to disappear into the ocean, too much of the muddled action takes place at night, and the plot twists are simultaneously sketched-in and over-complicated. The sequences featuring Marjorie Stewart's seduction of Heinrich Luhr are a bad combination of prolonged and unconvincing.

Key Quote:

Anders Lassen: I'm not leaving until I have a barrel full of Nazi hearts.



All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.