There's a couple of reasons why I am not over the moon about this release: For one thing, I think I am going through a bit of Guy Ritchie (the director) fatigue because he seems so busy making stuff these days and also, I kind of revere my World War 2 films and am not really a fan whenever someone tries to turn them into a humorous affair. This was part of the problem I had with Inglorious Basterds even thought overall it was a fantastic film.
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, which i will refer to as simply The Ministry henceforth, is a comedy / action film by Guy Ritchie that has mostly relatively unknown actors and actresses in it as he tells a "true story" about unauthorized combatants that engaged in shutting down Hitler's war machine in ways that were considered illegal and therefore could not be sanctioned by the British military.
Now, like a lot of things that happen in "true stories" there is very little that takes place in this story that is actually true at all. It catches your eye because it is meant to be based off of real actions that took place but ended up classified and remained that way until sometime in the past 10 years. I'm not going to get into tremendous detail about how fictionalized the film actually is, but I am sure there are other websites that are extremely dedicated to pointing those out. Basically, you don't have to be watching this film for very long to realize that almost all of it is a work of complete fiction because unless they had 5 Chuck Norrises working for the Brits back in the 40's, there is no way that a small group of people would ever be able to pull of what happens in this film.
So put away any ideas that this is ACTUALLY a true story and just try to enjoy yourself and then I think you can have a good time with it.
I'm not going to put any spoilers in here but the basic jist of the story is that we are at a point in World War 2 where the Nazis are absolutely dominating the war mostly because of the fact that they have U-boat technology and are ruling the seas because of it. This part of the story actually is true, there was a time when the world didn't really have a response to the submarine threat and this was a big part of the reason why nobody (in particular the United States) wasn't coming to the aid of Europe and more specifically, the UK.
This film focuses on a group of people who were supposedly hand picked by Winston Churchill to take on some covert missions to help the UK do something about the U-boats that were at that time, basically dooming the Brits to eventual defeat. It had to be a small group that operates out of the control of any military command and this is where Henry Cavil's "Gus" comes into play with his ragtag group of vigilantes that he gets to choose himself to go on these missions.
The action is pretty fantastic, even though it is extremely far-fetched that a handful of people would be able to take on forces that have 20 times their numbers. The Nazi opposition is presented as being extremely unorganized and moronic though, and the weaponry that the "Ministry" has is far superior to anyone they face off against. I for one applaud the fact that one of the Ministry members prefers to go after the enemy with a bow and arrow and of course, never misses.
The film is undoubtedly a work by Guy Ritchie and this is something that I think most people could figure out on their own without being told so. I appreciate Guy Ritchie but I think that I was nonplussed by this a bit because I recently watched many episodes of "the Gentlemen" and perhaps I am just kind of sick of his very unique and easily-identified style.
If you haven't seen a Ritchie film or series episode in a while, there is a pretty good chance that you will get more out of this than I did.
Once you finish the movie you will probably feel like it was worth seeing and the near 80% online approval rate for this movie seems to agree with you if you end up feeling that way. If you did enjoy it, I think it is worth looking at what REALLY happened during Operation Postmaster because this story is based on a real event, but almost none of what we see on screen was actually what happened during it.
Should I watch it?
This is worth seeing. I am just a pessimist and also consider WW2 films to be sacred ground that should only be approached in a certain way. I am very aware of the fact that this is my own personal opinion though and that is the only reason why I was a little less than super-impressed by this movie. For others, this film has tremendous entertainment appeal and is a really good movie, despite the impractical nature of almost all of what transpires on screen. For action fans, and comedy fans, and especially fans of both combined, this one will be a winner. While this movie does take extreme liberties at showing what actually happened, it is kind of nice that Ritchie shed some light on this very important historical event that most people don't think about very often.
While I will admit I didn't do much digging I cannot find anywhere that streams this for free as part of a subscription. It can be purchased or rented on almost all digital platforms.