Writer-director Guy Ritchie has a devoted legion of fans who love his fast-paced, fast-talking, hard-cutting, stylish films but the filmmaker has given them a rocky road to travel on in recent years with some less-than-successful fare that includes his last two films, GUY RITCHIE’S THE COVENANT and OPERATION FORTUNE: RUSE DE GUERRE. Ritchie is now back with a new film that is very loosely based on Operation Postmaster, which is detailed in Damien Lewis’ 2014 book entitled “Churchill’s Secret Warriors: The Explosive True Story of the Special Forces Desperadoes of WWII”.

THE MINISTRY OF UNGENTLEMANLY WARFARE opens in late 1940/early 1941. Europe has all but capitulated to the Nazis and the Brits aren’t doing much better. Prime Minister Winston Churchill (Rory Kinnear, NO TIME TO DIE; TV’s THE DIPLOMAT) is under pressure from his cabinet to broker a deal with Hitler but the cigar-smoking statesman won’t hear of it. He’s secretly asked Brigadier Gubbins (Cary Elwes, BLACKBERRY) to put together a team of mercenaries to carry out a mission to cripple Germany’s lethal U-boat program. Gubbins, along with his assistant, Ian Fleming (Freddie Fox, MRS. HARRIS GOES TO PARIS; KING ARTHUR: LEGEND OF THE SWORD), have just the man for the job – Gus March-Phillips (Henry Cavill, ARGYLLE). March-Phillips moves fast to put together his dream team consisting of Anders Lassen (Alan Ritchson, TV’s REACHER), a man who is quite handy with a knife as well as a bow and arrow; explosives expert Freddy Alvarez (Henry Golding, SNAKE EYES; LAST CHRISTMAS); and able seaman Henry Hayes (Hero Fiennes Tiffin, HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE). Together they first sail to Las Palmas where they bust Geoffrey Appleyard (Alex Pettyfer, ELVIS & NIXON) out of a Nazi prison, and then they head to the island of Fernando Po, off the coast of Cameroon, where they plan to blow up a key supply ship for the U-boat fleet. At the same time, Gubbins also enlists the help of casino owner Mr. Heron (Babs Olusanmokun, TV’s STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS) and secret agent Marjorie Stewart (Eiza Gonzalez, AMBULANCE) to keep the island’s Nazi commander, Heinrich Luhr (Til Schweiger, ATOMIC BLONDE), pre-occupied while March-Phillips and his team can carry out their plan.

Ritchie’s directorial aesthetic is certainly on display in the film’s first act, leading audiences to believe that this is going to be a madcap adventure to kick Nazi butts. Unfortunately, the film’s spirit, as well as the humour, quickly fades once the group heads to Fernando Po. At that point, THE MINISTRY OF UNGENTLEMANLY WARFARE becomes a bog-standard wartime action film with nothing remarkable or original to say or show. Yes, it is an enjoyable film but as I was watching it, I couldn’t help but think that it’s less a typical Ritchie film than it is a cheap knockoff of a Tarantino film. Even the cast seems like Ritchie got Tarantino’s B-list. Eiza Gonzalez’s character seems meant for Scarlett Johansson or Ana de Armas, Alex Pettyfer’s character seems meant for Dan Stevens and Henry Golding’s character seems meant for Ramy Youssef. Even Rory Kinnear’s performance as Churchill seems a bit wonky. When he first appeared on screen and started speaking, I said to my colleague that if he’s supposed to be Churchill, he’s not very good. He’s got the man’s cadence all wrong. Bring on John Lithgow!

It’s not all bland casting though. Cary Elwes and Til Schweiger always put in solid performances, and Henry Cavill is almost enjoyable to watch here. Bless him as he’s really working hard to shed his Superman image. The film really belongs to Alan Ritchson though, whose physical and comedic muscles are on full display. I haven’t seen REACHER yet but I’m certainly going to watch it now.

THE MINISTRY OF UNGENTLEMANLY WARFARE opened in Hong Kong yesterday (April 18th) and opens around the world today. It’s not vintage Ritchie but it’s a lot better than his last two films.

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