The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare | Average Guy Movie Review

With the Battle of the Atlantic in full swing, Churchill is desperate to find a way to neutralise Hitler's U-Boats. Which leads British Intelligence to come up with an audacious and unorthodox plan. The idea being to sneak into the Spanish island port off the coast of Africa where the U-Boats are docked, and take out the boats that are resupplying them, seriously damaging their ability to target the convoys crossing from North America. Now they just need to find people crazy enough to take on such a mission.

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, a decidedly British story, has finally landed on British shores. It's a heavily fictionalised telling of Operation Postmaster - the real operation took about 30 minutes and not a shot was fired. But that doesn't prevent Guy Ritchie from having a little fun, delivering a little action-packed romp whilst also capturing that spirit needed to take on such a task, and the one that got Britain through the war. While it's not his best work, with Ungentlemanly Warfare Ritchie continues to do one thing very well and that's showing a different side of us Brits, somehow dispelling and embracing that Hollywood stereotype. And it's always good to see a British war movie about the actions of British operatives, which is a rare thing. It's just too bad the movie didn't get a UK cinema release!

To tell such a crazy story, Ritchie has put together a fantastic cast. Henry Cavill is hilariously unhinged as the team leader, Gus March-Phillips. The Man from U.N.C.L.E. star is clearly having a whale of time playing a man who enjoys dispatching Nazis almost as much as he does liberating anything that catches his eye. But what also comes through is March-Phillips' sense of loyalty and duty - provided he gets to do it his way - which makes it easy to see why his team would follow him into danger. He and Alan Ritchson play perfectly off each other, with Ritchson playing another larger than life character; Anders Lassen, a Danish military officer who went on to win the Victoria Cross. An early scene in which their Swedish fishing trawler is accosted by a German naval vessel is particularly amusing, with the sailors becoming ever more enraged that their intimidation tactics aren't working on our insane heroes. It's also a great introduction to Henry Golding's crazy demolitions expert, Freddy Alvarez. While Cary Elwes puts on his best stiff upper lip as 'M', the man running things from London.

As for the operation itself, well it resembles terrifyingly organised chaos, and still manages to look like tremendous fun. Although, maybe not so much for the Nazis, as the members of the Small Scale Raiding Force (A.K.A. No. 62 Commando) dispatch them in droves. Where the movie falls down however, is in the setup of the operation. Eiza González and Babs Olusanmokun are excellent as the spies operating on the island. But their work to prep for the mission isn't really given the attention it deserves. They only get a couple of really good scenes, most of which involves pretty generic spy movie activities and lacks a real sense of tension. Although the pair do share a fun scene with Danny Sapani's 'Kambili Kalu' - a local pirate who went to Eaton. The same goes for Til Schweiger's Nazi leader, with Schweiger playing the evil sadist particularly well. He just isn't given all that much to do except look sinister. 

Despite this, there is a sense of excitement that permeates this story. One that undoubtedly comes from not playing by the rules. It's thanks to this that the invincible British sense of humour shines throughout, as well as a modicum of insanity - Ritchie's specialty. After all, who says that just because you're on a top secret mission with an audacious plan and a high risk of failure, you can't have a little fun? This is the selling point of such a movie, well that and watching a bunch of lunatics cause chaos everywhere they go - another of Ritchie's specialties - all of which is delivered in spades. More surprisingly, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare may be heavily fictionalised, but it's the kind of tale that makes you want to read up on the real operation and the people involved, because what was achieved beggars belief. 

A fun little action-packed romp, based loosely around a real operation. It's not Guy Ritchie's best work, but it will still make you laugh in a way only a Guy Ritchie movie can. I'm just surprised it didn't get a UK cinema release.

7/10

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is now available on Amazon Prime Video.

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