The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare
2024, R, 120 min. Directed by Guy Ritchie. Starring Henry Cavill, Eiza González, Alan Ritchson, Alex Pettyfer, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Babs Olusanmokun, Henry Golding, Cary Elwes.
REVIEWED By Kimberley Jones, Fri., April 19, 2024
At a critical juncture in the war, a plan is hatched to form a commando unit. This off-the-books assemblage of misfits and rogues (read: psychopaths) will launch guerrilla warfare on the Nazis from the shadows, denied official recognition from British armed forces. Who will lead this motley crew? Only one man right for the job, muses Brigadier Gubbins (Cary Elwes) – grinning rule-breaker Gus March-Phillipps (Henry Cavill), currently cooling his heels in prison for reasons unknown. Summoned to meet with top brass about a covert mission (the real-life Operation Postmaster), Gus is heard before he’s seen, his shackles audibly jangling like spurs, in concert with Christopher Benstead’s spaghetti western flavored score. The audio cue is amusingly on-the-nose: Gus is an ungovernable gunslinger, but not without a code. In other words, a standard-issue Guy Ritchie hero.
“Standard-issue Guy Ritchie” applies to much of The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, which he adapted from Damien Lewis’ nonfiction book Churchill’s Secret Warriors: The Explosive True Story of the Special Forces Desperadoes of WWII (Paul Tamasy, Eric Johnson, and Arash Amel are also credited with the screenplay.) That’s not meant entirely as a dig. A magpie director with eclectic taste – who else can list two millennium-era gangster classics (Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch), brawling Victorian mystery (Sherlock Holmes), and Disney live-action adaptation (Aladdin) all on one CV? – Ritchie brings a level of beyond-competence to every picture, elevating genre fare with energy, an inspired eye, a flair for casting. He is a master of glib entertainment, and that ain’t nothing. Just ask his former producer Matthew Vaughn, whose embarrassing Argylle, the spring’s other splattered-guts-jokey-jokey comedy-action mashup, fell way short of the mark.
The disappointment in The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare lies in how much potential it had to be something more. There are unavoidable Inglourious Basterds parallels in plot and temperament – a bloodthirsty commando unit, a diabolical Nazi officer, a Jewish woman working undercover, a B movie relish for extreme violence – but Ministry lacks that film’s ambition and artistry. There’s enough ballast in the cast to keep things light and larky; Cavill, reconnecting with Ritchie after 2015’s underrated spy yarn The Man From U.N.C.L.E., and Alan Ritchson (of Prime’s Jack Reacher), playing a Danish strongman out to avenge his Nazi-slain brother, are especially charming killers. (A blank Alex Pettyfer and pretty abominable Winston Churchill impression from Rory Kinnear are the only duds in the cast.) Points, too, to the sound design team that brings to flinching life the many sounds a body may make when it is shot through, sliced open, and axed to bits.
Thing is, there aren’t a lot of stakes to relentless hyperviolence where every character more or less moves through the movie with an air of supreme confidence. You know what’s a boring note to play for two hours? Nonchalance.
Alamo Drafthouse Lakeline
14028 Hwy. 183 N., 512/861-7070, www.drafthouse.com/austin/theater/lakeline
Sat., May 18
Sun., May 19
Mon., May 20
Tue., May 21
Wed., May 22
Barton Creek Square (AMC)
2901 Capital of Texas Hwy. S., 512/306-1991, www.amctheatres.com
Matinee discounts available before 4pm daily. Bring Your Baby matinees the first Tuesday of every month.
Sat., May 18
Sun., May 19
Mon., May 20
Tue., May 21
Cinemark 20 and XD
N. I-35 & FM 1825, 512/989-8535
Cost for 3-D and XD shows is regular ticket price plus a premium.
Sat., May 18
Sun., May 19
Mon., May 20
Tue., May 21
Wed., May 22
City Lights Theatre
420 Wolf Ranch Parkway, Georgetown, 512/868-9922
Sat., May 18
Sun., May 19
Mon., May 20
Tue., May 21
Wed., May 22
Gateway Theatre
9700 Stonelake, 512/416-5700
Discounts daily before 6pm. Cost for 3-D shows is regular ticket price plus a $3.50 premium.
Sat., May 18
Sun., May 19
Mon., May 20
Tue., May 21
Wed., May 22
A note to readers: Bold and uncensored, The Austin Chronicle has been Austin’s independent news source for over 40 years, expressing the community’s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands.
Dex Wesley Parra, April 21, 2023
Richard Whittaker, March 3, 2023
May 17, 2024
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, Guy Ritchie, Henry Cavill, Eiza González, Alan Ritchson, Alex Pettyfer, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Babs Olusanmokun, Henry Golding, Cary Elwes