SummaryBased upon recently declassified files of the British War Department and inspired by true events, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is an action-comedy that tells the story of the first-ever special forces organization formed during WWII by UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill and a small group of military officials including author I...
SummaryBased upon recently declassified files of the British War Department and inspired by true events, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is an action-comedy that tells the story of the first-ever special forces organization formed during WWII by UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill and a small group of military officials including author I...
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is everything you want in a movie: the fight scenes are bloody and exciting, the dialogue is tongue-in-cheek, every joke landed, and not one actor felt out of place.
There’s a glee in the Nazi killing and an exceptionally dry humor that is English through and through, but Ritchie strikes a tone that rides the line between self-serious and self-consciously humorous.
Movie was a lot of fun with some great characters I would love to see it transition too a series similar to what happened to Guy Richie's other movie the gentleman
As war movies go, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare ends up in a kind of no-man’s land, draping elements of “Mission: Impossible,” “Inglourious Basterds” and director Guy Ritchie’s brand of violent action-comedy over the bones of a fascinating World War II true story. The underwritten, somewhat messy results are broadly entertaining if not fully seaworthy from a dramatic point of view.
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare would seem to be an almost ideal project for Ritchie—which is why its lethargy comes as such a dispiriting surprise.
In the end, this is not really a World War II movie. It’s just a pretty good action film that borrows the plot from about three or four “Fast and Furious” movies, while stealing riffs from Tarantino.
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is not a laptop movie. It's a shame I couldn't watch it in the theatre. Although it's not a perfect action movie, it was fun. Henry Cavill and Eiza Gonzalez have this "watch all my movies" power, so I did.
It tries to be a period piece that's good. I guess. The acting and plot is dried and dull. It wasn't much fun and certainly wasn't exciting. Snooze-fest.
This is now my THIRD attempt* at (daring to -- ) write a NEGATIVE review of the much-anticipated Guy Richie film -- THE MINISTRY OF UNGENTLEMANLY WARFARE.
I was really looking forward to this film. I'm a great student of World War II (my father having served stateside during the period), and many of the films on my all-time fav list are epics such as PATTON (1970) and A BRIDGE TOO FAR (1977).
On the positive side, the film has some breathtaking locations and fairly decent casting in the leads: Henry Cavill and Alan Ritchson both, in the true self-satisfied-spirit of the entire film, do a handy job of chewing up the scenery.
(Babs Olusanmokun, however, practically sleepwalks through the role -- a cardboard cutout could almost have been substituted with equal effect.)
The biggest problem with the film is the pacing -- the action sequences (which are all pretty much already in the trailer) take FOREVER to get to -- a fact made all the more excruciating by the tiresome, poorly written dialogue sequences.
(At times, it actually sounds like the actors are ad-libbing, only more in the spirit of "get it over with" than offering anything genuine.)
Film scores are many times one of my favorite elements of a successful film, however, the score by Christopher Benstead seems very repetitive, with maybe only three key themes being used (the "faux cocktail" theme being the one I remember as most grating on my patience -- being constantly used to try to artificially amp up the tension in the interim.)
Although I usually stay for the full credits on theatrical releases, I was so exhausted and disappointed that I walked out as the "faux Morricone" theme began to play . . .
HIGHLY UN-RECOMMENDED.
* NOTE: Both my Rotten Tomatoes and Google reviews were pulled down for mysterious reasons -- apparently they mortally offended the LionsGate Marketing Department. (SOLUTION: Make better movies!)