Filmmaker Guy Richie has had a pretty good run over the last couple of years in terms of his work behind the camera. The last five years have seen several critical hits such as Wrath of Man, The Gentleman, and  Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant. When it comes to The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare,  you have to feel like that this was a buddy favor to create good grace for a future film.

The reason why I say this is because despite Guy Richie being the director of this film,  this is a movie that has four screenwriters, Richie included.  A good rule of thumb when it comes to Hollywood movies is that if a film has more than two screenwriters, chances are the quality of that movie is going to be in the mud. In the Culinary world, we call this having too many cooks in the kitchen. In Hollywood we call this a narrative too many, and The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is a perfect example of this.

Set in World War II, The film revolves around the Special Operations Executive, a covert British organization formed in 1940 by Prime Minister Winston Churchill. In the height of Britain’s battle against Adolf Hitler, British forces decide to conduct an Espionage mission to infiltrate Nazi ranks in order to sabotage their position and supplies in hopes of gaining an advantage in the ongoing War. 

Gus March-Phillips played by Henry Cavill and his team the bow-and-arrow-wielding Anders Lassen (Alan Ritchson), explosives expert Freddy Alvarez (Henry Golding), Geoffrey Appleyard (Alex Pettyfer), and Henry Hayes (Hero Fiennes Tiffin) come together to take out a Nazi boat port. All the men involved are trusted by British intelligence because they all have a motive to seek revenge against the Nazi regime however they are told that if anything were to go awry they will be left on their own and denied by their government.

While this is happening an Entertainer along with a famous bar owner are rubbing noses with a Nazi government in an attempt to keep them distracted from their surroundings in order to give the British forces enough time to complete their mission.

Even though Guy Richie is both the writer, producer, and director of this film his style is almost absent from the film.  If you’ve seen one of Guy Richie’s movies there is a narrative in tone that goes along with his films that makes it very identifiable with the director.  However, with this film being only one of the four screenwriters attached to the movie, a lot of His Flare is removed.

In case you needed another reminder, the Nazis in World War II were the bad guys, and as a result of this, the film goes all in on the brutality of killing Nazis on screen.  Henry Cavill is in the film as the over the top Wild Man of the group who kills Nazis with a passion.  Henry Cavill enjoys his time chewing up the scenery in this film understanding that he’s in an over-the-top Violent action movie and it shows and its performance. 

Alan Ritchson, Who hasn’t done himself any favors by burying his target audience during the week of promoting this film,  is the physically imposing brute of the movie.  Well, the actor doesn’t dress like he’s in the time period that he is supposed to be in,  his job is to be the equivalent of the Incredible Hulk when it comes to hand-to-hand combat against his adversaries.

The problem with the movie arises when the film pivots away from our Core Group of spies. While Cavill is the a plot of the story, Eiza González becomes the B plot as a entertainer schmoozing her way through the Nazi regime in hopes that if you don’t figure out that she is a Jew. The casting of this character is a little tough to believe As Gonzalez who is Mexican is attempting to play a half-Jewish covert agent. You noticed the diversity, equity, and inclusion requirements of this film which wouldn’t be as glaring if it didn’t contribute to the biggest flaw of this movie.

The film has too many writers and  too many characters. The movie tries to effectively tell the story of several characters through the pins of several writers which makes the film a narrative mess for most of its 2-hour runtime. This causes the film to pull Focus away from the central story which makes it hard for the audience to stay engaged throughout. What saves this movie from being a complete disaster is a very strong third Act where all the World building is finished and the movie can go straight into the action.  What the film lacks in screenwriting and makes up for its cinematography and stunt choreography which should distract the audience is enough for them to not  dwell on the cons of the movie. 

The best way to describe The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare Is overbooked. A film that tries to be all the things before figuring out what it is as a movie. The golden rule of thumb is when all else fails less is more, including actors, characters, and writers.

2/5

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