2024 - THE MINISTRY OF UNGENTLEMANLY WARFARE, disappointing spy/action film.

Another one of these based on a true story films but we can get into that later.  The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is the supposed true story about a team of British commandos involved in something called "Operation Postmaster" during World War II.  In real life this team snuck aboard a couple of supply ships the German Navy had in neutral West Africa and sailed them into international waters where they were taken over by the British Navy.  The raid was apparently opposed by the British Admiralty but was sanctioned by Winston Churchill himself.

Well so much for the facts.  In this telling of the story these British commandos are a bunch of carefree devils as they race around shooting German soldiers and sailors with machine guns equipped with silencers and make no mistake about it they shot a lot of guys while they crack a lot of jokes.  They are assisted by a British agent played by Mexican actor Eiza González,  not that there is anything wrong with that.  The rest of the actors are a mixed bag of American and British performers.

 

This film was directed by Guy Ritchie who would seem the perfect guy to mix his mild black humor with lots of over the top violence.  But for some reason Ritchie doesn't seem up to the task this time.  The film straddles between attempts at James Bondian quip type humor and all out dead seriousness.  Ritchie can't seem to find the tone for this film.  Instead the film degenerates into a shoot and blow things up extravagance during the last part of the story.  I guess if you are in the mood for watching a lot of German soldiers get shot up, this is the film for you.  

 

The film ends with one of those "American Graffati" endings where they show the real pictures of the commando team with a little blurb about each of them. In real life these characters in this film were killed during various covert operations during World War II.  However there is no place for that kind of ending in this film.  So much for the based on a true story credit that the film shows at the beginning of this story. 

The film was written by Paul Tamasy,  Eric Johnson,  Arash Amel and Guy Ritchie.  The running time is 120 minutes.