REVIEW: The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare Is Just Plain Fun

Guy Ritchie returns with his next creation, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. Based on the 2016 nonfiction book “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: How Churchill’s Secret Warriors Set Europe Ablaze and Gave Birth to Modern Black Ops” by Damien Lewis, this new film can only be described as a fictionalized version of the 1942 Operation Postmaster event, which saw a ragtag group of covert agents infiltrate Fernando Po, a Spanish island off the coast of West Africa. It’s here where the Nazis has been safe keeping their U-Boat supply vessel, and it is here where the agents must come up with an operation to destroy the vessel so the Americans can safely cross the Atlantic to help England with the war.

The actual Operation Postmaster took just around thirty minutes to complete, so how does one craft a thirty-minute event during World War II into a two-hour long film? Cue the violence, set the bombs, pop in a comedic line here and there, and hold onto to your hats because that is what is in store for film viewers as the next two hours roll along. No character is too complex, the story is not hard to follow, and the comedy keeps things lighthearted as Nazis are being slain left and right. At the end of the day, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is a typical Guy Ritchie film, a middle of the road comedy with outlandish action sequences that don’t require too much thinking. And that process works wonderfully for The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare and its viewers.

Playing the film’s island of misfit agents is Henry Cavill, Eiza González, Alan Ritchson, Alex Pettyfer, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Babs Olusanmokun, Henry Golding, and Cary Elwes while Til Schweiger takes on the role of the horrific Gestapo villain, Heinrich Luhr. There is a playful side to each actor’s performance and an enjoyment to their work that is built upon trust amongst colleagues and their director. Viewers will see this throughout any scene where Cavill, Ritchson, Pettyfer, Fiennes Tiffin, and Golding share a screen together.

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is not going to win any major awards this year. However, for two hours on a Spring night, it’s a film that will leave viewers laughing and entertained without too much thinking. And in this day and age, the types of films are far and few between, but heavily needed, so I highly recommend giving this film a watch.

Grade: B+