THE MINISTRY OF UNGENTLEMANLY WARFARE (2024) – A terrible movie and a waste of time

This movie set during the World War 2 when Nazi Germany were advancing across Europe, starts off by proclaiming that it is based on a true story! However, the film looks anything like a representation of reality as what we have is a bunch of trigger-happy and wise-cracking renegades undercover solders from Britain who effectively escape from a one nasty Nazi encounter after another without a scratch. I have to admit that I am not a fan of this sort of cartoon approach to movies when it is dealing with supposedly true stories while blatantly filling the screen with explosive mayhem. Nah, this is not my idea of entertainment.

I am surprised by the talents involved in this load of rubbish. Director Guy Ritchie who has given us numerous respectable British gangster movies, and the Sherlock Holmes movies starring Robert Downey Jr., is not in his element here. Instead of making a proper war movie that commemorates the real heroes who risked their lives in a secret mission to destroy the Nazi’s base that supports their fleet of U boats, Guy Ritchie chose to reinvent history and made all the characters come across like indestructible superheroes. Since this is so obviously one sided, there is never a second that we would doubt if the mission would fail or not. All the Nazi’s portrayed are like nameless and faceless objects there to be shot down, arrowed or knifed to death mercilessly. The killings are repetitive and uncreatively choreographed. The shameless display of trigger-happy characters is yet another example of the glorification of gun violence perpetuated in movies.

The testosterone filled cast is headed by Henry Cavill and the equally buffed Alan Ritchson, Alex Pettyfer and Henry Golding. They all came across as forgettable characters with nothing to do apart from cracking wise jokes, and killing Nazi’s. The glamorous and beautiful Eiza Gonzalez (she was in TV’s 3 Body Problem), is the only female in the cast. At least her character has more to do than just shot and kill. I would say she is probably the best thing in the entire movie.

The core story and characters in The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare are based on real-life people who took part in a real-life the mission. Guy Ritchie’s version here is an overly fantasized version of the truth. At least Quentin Tarantino’s similarly anti-Nazi’s themed Inglourious Basterds (2009), to which Guy Ritchie is obviously trying (but failing) to emulate here, does not claim to be based on a true story.