The Film Buffa Reviews: Guy Ritchie strikes up a great time with 'The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare'

Henry Cavill, Alan Ritchson, and company give audiences a compelling blast.

A good filmmaker knows how to create intriguing storylines in a number of environments. Their stint in a single genre doesn’t get too comfortable before a change. They can set down in a thriller based in a war zone, or dial it down to a tale of money trucks and vengeful gangsters. No matter where their story operates, the audience is engaged.

Guy Ritchie has claimed that status, especially in the past few years. The guy who crafted the perfect Quentin Tarantino tribute song with 2000’s Snatch has come into his own in a career with big highs (the Sherlock Holmes movies) and nasty lows (King Arthur: Legend of the Sword). It’s rarely a sleepy effort, good or bad. Through the years, he’s honed an entertaining, high-energy style of filmmaking that’s created some solid films over the past ten years.

Man from U.N.C.L.E., Wrath of Man, The Gentlemen (film and Netflix series), and The Covenant are all good times at the movies, even if they’re only comparable in style and camera choices. Ritchie’s run of compelling entertainment continues with this month’s The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. A list of heartthrob/skull crushers includes U.N.C.L.E. leading man Henry Cavill.

Playing the disheveled yet ruthless leader of a band of rogues carrying out a secret mission for Winston Churchill during the pinnacle of World War II, Cavill is in his comfort zone. While the world (and myself) wants him to play James Bond, Ritchie allows him to play the man whom Ian Fleming based the secret agent on. Gus-March Phillips is the kind of leader who pours three fingers of bourbon and steals a few cigars as you tell him about the mission that could end with him and his men jailed or dead.

Sharing the manly center of Ungentlemanly Warfare is every television lover’s favorite tough guy at the moment: Alan Ritchson of Reacher fame. As he leads one of Amazon Prime’s most popular shows, he’s building a nice film resume that included blasting Vin Diesel’s Fast and Furious family out of the sky. Here, he’s the weapons and general killing specialist named Anders Lassen, a human brick shithouse who can smile at you one second and slit your throat right afterwards. Like Cavill, he’s having an absolute ball playing a non-hero doing hero-like things.

Phillips, Lassen, and his crew have to go behind Nazi lines and take out their boats and other advantages that Hitler is using to take control of the war. The movie doesn’t waste much time getting us to like this island of misfit toys, ones that can sneak up on armed officers. They unwittingly come aboard Phillips’s fishing boat thinking they have his team outnumbered and that the upper hand belongs to them. Instead, Gus and Anders just keep laughing, and turn the tables.

Eiza Gonzalez cuts a striking figure and makes a dent with her portrayal of Marjorie Stewart. Her part of the mission is getting up close and personal with the Nazis and their political culture. Babs Olusanmokun, who shook the tree hard for Jason Statham’s revenge-seeker in Wrath of Man, forms a nice partnership with Gonzalez in their subplot, going deep undercover to defeat the enemy.

Rory Kinnear is completely unrecognizable in a sublime supporting role as the cigar-chomping, whiskey-slurping Churchill, an expert war mind who adored unlikely solutions. In a pair of rousing speeches, you’ll feel the emotional allure of a righteous war fought and won. It’s like Ritchie wanted to dig into some real life history (the mission was declassified in 2016) with his latest, creating entertainment with backbone.

Cary Elwes, Alex Pettyfer, Henry Golding, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, and a career bad guy in Til Schweiger round out a fine cast that gives until it’s gone. Paul Tamasy, Eric Johnson, and Arash Amel’s screenplay packs enough of a punch for the cast and director to create a runway worth betting two hours of your free time on.

Ritchson fans won’t leave disappointed. He slashes and bashes bad guys, and prefers to do it in something tight fitting on the upper body. He has charisma to burn, and forms a nice rapport with Cavill. Sometimes, actors who became a big deal on the small screen can shrink under the bright lights of a big screen adventure. Ritchson isn’t doing any of that nonsense, and should get more roles that allow his strengths (and strength) to shine.

Ritchie knows how to shine. He has crafted a style of film that the late Tony Scott and Tarantino would appreciate in 26 years of moviemaking. Thankfully, unlike the Pulp Fiction director, Ritchie isn’t slowing down or making his next one his last feature. He’s at the top of his game, giving audiences movies that are fun and also mean something. He can serve it up chilled (Wrath), snappy and proper (Gentlemen), in visceral slow burn nature (Covenant), or blend them into a more dirty martini like this Ministry.

I prefer them over a league of more extraordinary gents. Sometimes, going with “bad” is a way to find victory, whether you’re a British Prime Minister or a moviegoer.