The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare 4K is now available for purchase. Directed by Guy Ritchie, who has stayed incredibly busy, the film stars Henry Cavill as the leader of a ragtag special forces group that is looking to disrupt a Nazi supply line during World War II. Featuring Ritchie’s signature style and writing, this is a fun celebration of heroes rather than a purely historical look, and it winds up being a lot of fun because of that choice.
“Directed and co-written by Guy Ritchie, this action-comedy tells the incredible true story of the first-ever special forces organization formed during WWII by UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill and a small group of military officials including author Ian Fleming,” says the synopsis. “The top secret combat unit, composed of a motley crew of rogues and mavericks led by Gus March-Phillipps (Henry Cavill), goes on a daring mission against the Nazis using entirely unconventional and utterly ‘ungentlemanly’ fighting techniques. Ultimately, the task force’s audacious approach changed the course of the war and laid the foundation for the British SAS and modern black ops warfare.”
While Cavill is certainly the lead, he’s not in every single scene of The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. However, this isn’t an Argylle situation where he’s barely in the film. Instead, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare jumps between two main stories, one with Cavill’s group of soldiers and the other focusing on Eiza González and Babs Olusanmokun, who are already on the island of Fernando Po and are setting up the mission. If done improperly, one could lose interest in the “B story,” but thankfully, González captivates in her role and both segments are fun to watch.
I laughed quite a bit while watching The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare 4K, and I had forgotten just how sharp some of the writing is. What I didn’t forget was how fun the action segments are. The opening scene on the boat is a great introduction to the gang, Alan Ritchson really gets to shine throughout, and the whole ending is pretty nonstop action. If you want to see Nazis get decimated by some badass real-life heroes, then you’ve come to the right place.
Beyond the theatrical trailer, there’s only one special feature on The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare 4K. While that’s typically disappointing, and I’d love to have seen a commentary track here, this is at least in the form of a heft 24-minute video titled “The Ministry of Filmmaking.” This is a very well-edited video that features a behind-the-scenes look at production and interviews with Ritchie, Jerry Bruckheimer, and more. One of my favorite segments is where it cuts back and forth between Cavill and Ritchson talking about each other — Ritchson lavishes praise toward Cavill while the British actor jokingly insults the Reacher star. It’s clear everyone had a blast while filming, and you can see it in the end result.
“[Guy] was right there really giving his notes, giving the new dialogue every morning, but really engaged and really just sitting there and making sure he was getting what he needed. It felt like we were cooking something, and I could see him very excited about what we were doing. I’m already excited. Eiza was already excited, so we just had a lot of fun. We just had a lot of fun working with Guy,” said The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare star Babs Olusanmokun to ComingSoon about working with Ritchie. That same positive attitude is seen throughout the video.
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare 4K Review: Final verdict
I had a great time watching Guy Ritchie’s latest action movie in theaters earlier this year and had just as good a time revisiting it with The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare 4K release. Ritchie does a great job getting viewers to care about both sections of its split story, and the final fourth of the film is the big action set piece that viewers had been anticipating the whole time. It certainly delivers action with a flair, and it was fun to see how it was done through the new 24-minute video. It’s hard to have a bad time when you’re watching Nazis get murdered, and this delivers plenty of that.
ComingSoon received product from the publisher for our The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare 4K review.
