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The film has already earned comparisons to The Dirty Dozen and Inglourious Basterds.
Prime Video has just added The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, a new action war movie from co-writer and director Guy Richie (The Gentlemen, Snatch).
The film is billed in its opening title card as being “based on a true story taken from Winston Churchill’s confidential files declassified in 2016”.
It sees Henry Cavill (Man of Steel, The Witcher) play an imprisoned soldier during World War II who is freed from jail by his army superiors, including future James Bond author Ian Fleming (Freddie Fox, Slow Horses), under the orders of Prime Minister Churchill (Rory Kinnear, Penny Dreadful).
This is because he has been tasked to lead a “top-secret combat unit composed of a motley crew of rogues and mavericks” on a daring mission against the Nazis using “entirely unconventional and utterly ‘ungentlemanly’ fighting techniques.
“Ultimately their audacious approach changed the course of the war and laid the foundation for the British SAS and modern Black Ops warfare,” the plot synopsis reads.
Co-starring as the members of Cavill’s character’s team are Alex Pettyfer (Stormbreaker), Alan Ritchson (Reacher), Babs Olusanmokun (Dune), Danny Sapani (Penny Dreadful), Eiza González (Ambulance), Henry Golding (The Gentlemen) and Hero Fiennes Tiffin (The Woman King).
While also part of the ensemble cast is Cary Elwes (The Princess Bride), Henrique Zaga (The New Mutants) and Til Schweiger (Inglourious Basterds).
Essentially Guy Ritchie’s lighter, more comedic take on such war adventure flicks like The Dirty Dozen and Inglourious Basterds, The Ministry has earned mostly positive reviews from critics.
You can read a sample of some of these write-ups right here:
Chicago Sun-Times: “This is a Guy Ritchie action-comedy through and through, which means it’s going to be a stylish, cartoonishly violent, slick and relatively mindless popcorn movie. We’ll take it.”
Crooked Marquee: “While light on minor elements like historical details, military strategy, and character development, Ritchie’s film is heavy on Nazis getting destroyed in inventive ways — and is admittedly pretty great at that one thing.”
Observer: “The cast, especially Ritchson, chews the scenery and spits it out with great fervor. It’s violent, stylish and presented with flair while showcasing a lesser-known tale from the war that was only declassified recently.”
Time Out: “The old Ritchie blueprint endures in The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: charismatic lads having a laugh, blowing stuff up and nonchalantly dismissing calamities as ‘a spot of bother’.”
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is streaming on Prime Video in Ireland and the UK right now.
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