R 2024 ‧ Action/War 2 hours
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (TMoUW) succeeds as an action-packed, fun, popcorn movie; with Jerry Bruckheimer as a producer, that demonstrates his ability to stay in his lane and deliver on his specialty of special effects-laden action flicks. I don’t always like his movies but I liked this one. Guy Ritchie helms the film so I expected characters to wink at the camera, to act cool, and to perpetrate a high level of violence; this is present here but not to the level of camp.
Here’s a quick pitch of the movie: take Guy Ritchie, Jerry Bruckheimer, James Bond, and Mission: Impossible put them in a blender, and set the film during World War II. For a true story, it’s pretty unbelievable, but fun.
The Atlantic Ocean is under the command of Nazi U-boats and England is threatened. To entice the United States to enter the war, England must demonstrate that they can win. Churchill is being pressured to surrender to Germany. To stave off surrender and fight Germany, England must defeat the U-boats. The U-boat supplies are on an island off the coast of Africa. If those supplies can be taken out, England has a chance. But who can accomplish this near-impossible feat? Cue a rag-tag team of soldiers who aren’t good at following orders and are willing to accept a secret mission.
Gus March-Phillips (Henry Cavill, “Superman”) is the leader of the group and the real-life inspiration for Ian Fleming’s James Bond; Fleming is even a character in the movie. March-Phillips is joined by Anders Lassen (Alan Ritchson “Reacher”) who is good with a knife and a bow and arrow. Marjorie Stewart (Elza González, Auggie in “3 Body Problem”) and Heron (Babs Olusanmokun, Dr. M’Benga “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds”) are embedded at the supply port and provide information and enemy distraction for the rest of the team; as more of a newcomer, González does a nice job with her screen time and this could be a big break for her. Although a small team, I will not mention the half dozen others.
I had fun watching this movie and didn’t look at my watch once. The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare accomplished the mission I set out for them.
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