--- title: "The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare" year: 2024 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-ministry-of-ungentlemanly-warfare" fi1m_id: "the-ministry-of-ungentlemanly-warfare" imdb_id: "tt5177120" tmdb_id: 799583 wikidata_id: "Q115860236" fi1m_score: 55 critics_score: 54 critics_reviews: 12 published: "2026-09-09" updated: "2026-09-18T08:37:59.552401+00:00" region: "SI" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (2024) Directed by Guy Ritchie · 2h 00m · Action, Comedy, War, Adventure ## Identity The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare - **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/the-ministry-of-ungentlemanly-warfare - **Type:** Film - **Fi1m ID:** the-ministry-of-ungentlemanly-warfare - **IMDb ID:** tt5177120 - **TMDB ID:** 799583 - **Wikidata ID:** Q115860236 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5177120/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/799583, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q115860236 **Fi1m score: 55** · Critics 54 from 12 reviews *In a sentence:* The Germans are the only people on screen who seem to think there is a war on > Guy Ritchie sends Henry Cavill and four friends to sink a ship and kill everyone in reach, and stages it as a lark. The action is clean and the company good, but nothing anyone does costs anything, and two hours of that wears thin. ## Synopsis In the early years of the Second World War, German U-boats are sinking Allied convoys faster than Britain can replace them. Winston Churchill (Rory Kinnear) approves a plan he can never admit to: Brigadier Gubbins (Cary Elwes), with Ian Fleming (Freddie Fox) at his elbow, sends Major Gus March-Phillips (Henry Cavill) on a mission with no uniforms and no rules. He gathers the Dane Anders Lassen (Alan Ritchson), the explosives man Freddy Alvarez (Henry Golding) and his old friend Geoffrey Appleyard (Alex Pettyfer), and sails for the Spanish island of Fernando Po. There, Marjorie Stewart (Eiza González) and Richard Heron (Babs Olusanmokun) are already at work keeping the German commandant Heinrich Luhr (Til Schweiger) looking the other way while the ship supplying the U-boats sits in the harbour. ## Review Guy Ritchie has found the one wartime story that might have been written for him: a gang of well-spoken misfits, an official licence to misbehave, and a great many Germans standing in the way. *The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare* follows Gus March-Phillips (Henry Cavill), sent by Churchill (Rory Kinnear) and Brigadier Gubbins (Cary Elwes) to sail to the Spanish island of Fernando Po and sink the ship supplying the U-boats that are strangling the Atlantic convoys. Nobody in London can know. That is the whole plot, and at 120 minutes the film has rather more room than it needs for it. Cavill is having a better time than he has had in years. He wears his moustache like a stage prop, smokes through every briefing and delivers his lines as a man who has already decided the meeting is over. Alan Ritchson, as the Dane Anders Lassen, is the film’s one real invention: an enormous, courteous killer who greets people warmly and then puts an axe in them. Henry Golding’s Alvarez blows things up and grins about it. Alex Pettyfer’s Appleyard and Hero Fiennes Tiffin’s Hayes make up the numbers with good grace. Ed Wild shoots the whole thing in a warm, honeyed light, night raids included, so the war looks like somewhere you might book a fortnight. Chris Benstead’s score is a jaunty affair of whistling, twanging guitar and brass, and James Herbert cuts the fights to it: a stab on the downbeat, a cutaway before the body hits the deck. It is clean, legible work. You always know who is shooting whom, which is more than many action films this size can say. And yet. We laughed when Ritchson, plugged full of arrows, plucked one out and carried on, and then somewhere around the fortieth dead German we noticed we had stopped feeling anything at all, amusement included. The reason is on screen. Ritchie stages every death the same way, at the same speed, with nobody on either side reacting to it. The Germans die by the dozen and the British never so much as get their shirts dirty, and a mission in which nothing can go wrong is not a mission. The other half of the film is on the island, where Marjorie Stewart (Eiza González) and Richard Heron (Babs Olusanmokun) are meant to be keeping the commandant Heinrich Luhr (Til Schweiger) occupied. González sings, changes gowns and flirts; Schweiger glowers and threatens. These scenes are where the tension ought to live, and they are the slackest thing in the film. Martyn John’s Fernando Po is a clean white harbour with a casino and a quayside, and none of it looks as if anyone lived there before the crew arrived. Danny Sapani, as the local fixer KB, gets the best dry lines and too few of them. Ritchie’s best films run on talk. [*Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels*](https://film.one/film/lock-stock-and-two-smoking-barrels) (1998) was a small crime picture that kept you leaning in for the next line, and *The Man from U.N.C.L.E.* (2015), also with Cavill, was a spy caper that knew flirting was more fun than fighting. Here, with four credited screenwriters, the dialogue is mostly logistics and the jokes are mostly killings. Freddie Fox’s Ian Fleming hovers at the edges as a wink to the audience, and the film would rather we noticed the wink than anything he says. Most critics have landed about where we have, half amused and half unbothered, and the split in the reviews comes down to how much you mind watching a war in which the war is never in doubt. It is a pleasant enough two hours with people who look good in linen, and it goes down easily at home, where the flatness matters less. The men it is based on took real risks. The film takes none. *Fi1m score 55, published 9 September 2026.* ## What the critics say The reviews divide widely, and the mean of 54 hides a spread that runs from warm to hostile. The kinder notices, mostly from the American trades, take it as a breezy men-on-a-mission lark and praise Henry Cavill, the ensemble’s easy chemistry and Guy Ritchie’s handling of the violent set pieces; a few also single out the swinging score and the costumes. The reservations cluster around tone and pace. Many critics find the film unsure whether it wants to be a caper or a combat thriller, slack between the action, thin on character and short of real danger or verbal wit, and several object to how freely it rewrites history. Vulture notes how much it owes to Inglourious Basterds. The sharpest dissent comes from the British broadsheets on the later UK release, with The Times calling the script workmanlike and the sets cheap, and The Telegraph judging it a misfire that swaps jokes for kill-shots. ## Straight answers **Is The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare worth watching?** *The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare* is a mixed bag, and we scored it 55: a pleasant, well-staged two hours in which nothing anyone does ever costs anything. Henry Cavill and Alan Ritchson are good company and the action is clean and easy to follow, but the Germans die by the dozen and the British never get their shirts dirty. Fine for a light evening at home; not one to seek out. **How long is The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, and what is it rated?** *The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare* runs 2h 00m. It is an action and comedy film. **Where can I watch The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare in Slovenia?** *The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare* is not on any streaming or rental service in Slovenia at the moment. It is available in 48 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily. **How violent or frightening is The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, and is it suitable for children?** *The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare* is a 15 in the UK and an R in the US, and the violence is constant, though played as a lark rather than for horror. Men are shot, stabbed and put to the axe by the dozen, with a cutaway before the body hits the deck and nobody on screen reacting much. Not for children; teenagers used to action films will find little that frightens. **How does The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare compare to Inglourious Basterds?** *The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare* is the lighter and much slighter of the two, and [*Inglourious Basterds*](https://film.one/film/inglourious-basterds) is the better film. Ritchie's picture is a caper in which the Germans are never a threat and the jokes are mostly killings; Tarantino's runs on long scenes of talk in rooms, and its Nazis, led by Christoph Waltz, are allowed to be frightening. Choose Ritchie for an undemanding evening, Tarantino for tension. **What should I watch after The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare?** After *The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare*, try [*The Man from U.N.C.L.E.*](https://film.one/film/the-man-from-u-n-c-l-e) (2015, Fi1m 64): Ritchie and Cavill in better suits, with jokes that arrive before the gunfire. Then [*Inglourious Basterds*](https://film.one/film/inglourious-basterds) (2009, Fi1m 92): The film this one keeps glancing at, where the Nazis are allowed to be frightening; and [*Operation Mincemeat*](https://film.one/film/operation-mincemeat) (2021, Fi1m 66): Another improbable British wartime scheme, played straight and worrying about the details. ### Reviews we read (15) - **Variety**, Peter Debruge (80/100, inferred): Praises the spirited WWII coup led by Henry Cavill and the ensemble's chemistry in this men-on-a-mission tale, noting Ritchie's fun take on history despite some formulaic elements. [Read](https://variety.com/2024/film/reviews/the-ministry-of-ungentlemanly-warfare-review-1235972253/) - **Evening Standard**, Vicky Jessop (75/100, inferred): The critic finds it a slick, fun Boys' Own adventure war film that dodges many of Ritchie's usual tropes in favour of stylish action. She singles out the jauntily executed, entertaining action sequences for praise while noting the flimsy characters and lack of depth. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/the-ministry-of-ungentlemanly-warfare-review-prime-video-henry-cavill-guy-ritchie-b1172660.html) - **Los Angeles Times**, Katie Walsh (75/100, inferred): Finds the film an entertaining homage to real-life war heroes with verve, dry English humor, and stylish pulp myth-making, though a bit languidly paced. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2024-04-18/the-ministry-of-ungentlemanly-warfare-review-guy-ritchie-henry-cavill) - **Empire**, John Nugent (65/100, inferred): The critic calls it a silly, ahistorical action-comedy that is energetic and breezy but flawed in tone, structure and character depth. He singles out the director's handling of the ultraviolent action sequences for praise while noting miscasting and lack of real stakes. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/the-ministry-of-ungentlemanly-warfare/) - **RogerEbert.com**, Glenn Kenny (60/100, inferred): The critic notes the film's entertaining anti-Nazi action sequences with Ritchie bravura but criticizes its languid pacing between set pieces, lack of verbal crackle, and grating historical inaccuracies. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-ministry-of-ungentlemanly-warfare-movie-review-2024) - **The Guardian** (3/5): The critic finds it an adequate, workmanlike three-star Guy Ritchie effort that works as a mid-budget crowd-pleaser with energy and violent action sequences but lacks memorable zingers or lasting impact. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/apr/17/ministry-ungentlemanly-warfare-movie-review-henry-cavill) - **Time Out**, Elizabeth Weitzman (3/5): The critic finds it a cheerfully amusing, sturdy piece of entertainment with charismatic lads blowing stuff up, but notes it's tough to get too involved and favors style over substance. Praises the swinging score and costumes. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-ministry-of-ungentlemanly-warfare-2024) - **Vulture**, Bilge Ebiri (40/100, inferred): It is not very good but hard to dislike for its genial day-drunk romp tone; the film leans too far into upper-crust British attitudes, cribs shamelessly from Inglourious Basterds, and lacks real danger or suspense. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/article/ministry-of-ungentlemanly-warfare-review-brutally-posh.html) - **Slant Magazine**, Derek Smith (35/100, inferred): Ritchie’s action-comedy never quite settles on what type of film it wants to be; it is a cheeky but undercooked WWII yarn that is breezy yet weightless, cartoonish, and lacking in dramatic impact or nuance despite some thrilling sequences. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/the-ministry-of-ungentlemanly-warfare-review-henry-cavill/) - **The Times** (30/100, inferred): The critic describes it as a flat, uninspired misfire and botched mission, criticizing the workmanlike script, cheap sets, and sloppy action despite the subject fitting the director’s style. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/film/article/the-ministry-of-ungentlemanly-warfare-review-another-botched-mission-from-guy-ritchie-6dgk9vcdd) - **The Telegraph** (20/100, inferred): The critic calls it a terrible misfire that feels like an attempt to make Carry On Churchill but replaces jokes with kill-shots, with most of the runtime devoted to carnage rather than plot or wit. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/the-ministry-of-ungentlemanly-warfare-review-henry-cavill/) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, David Rooney: The film is diverting but awkwardly stuck between a larkish caper and a gripping combat thriller, with lots of explosions but little explosiveness and an execution that fails to maximize the story’s potential. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/the-ministry-of-ungentlemanly-warfare-review-henry-cavill-alan-ritchson-guy-ritchie-1235874556/) - **/Film**, Jeremy Mathai (5/10): The critic finds it a fun but forgettable mixed bag with strong performances and enjoyable action sequences, but criticizes tonal inconsistency, uneven pacing, and a script that struggles to balance its comedic and dramatic elements. [Read](https://www.slashfilm.com/1558496/the-ministry-of-ungentlemanly-warfare-review/) - **Deadline**, Pete Hammond: The critic praises the lively, fun WWII adventure led by Henry Cavill under Guy Ritchie, noting the team's repartee and action as highlights despite some excessive dialogue. [Read](https://deadline.com/2024/04/the-ministry-of-ungentlemanly-warfare-review-henry-cavill-guy-ritchies-ww2-adventure-1235887584/) - **The Wrap**: The critic finds it a slick, satisfying men-on-a-mission thriller where Guy Ritchie balances Nazi threat with fun violence and hunky heroes, with Cavill delightful and music a standout. [Read](https://www.thewrap.com/ministry-of-ungentlemanly-warfare-review-henry-cavill/) ## Details - **Director:** Guy Ritchie - **Director:** Guy Ritchie - **Screenplay:** Paul Tamasy, Eric Johnson, Guy Ritchie, Arash Amel - **Cinematography:** Ed Wild - **Editor:** James Herbert - **Music:** Christopher Benstead - **Production design:** Martyn John - **Producer:** John Friedberg, Ivan Atkinson, Guy Ritchie - **Cast:** Henry Cavill as Maj. Gus March-Phillips; Eiza Gonzalez as Marjorie Stewart; Alan Ritchson as Anders Lassen - 'The Danish Hammer'; Henry Golding as Freddy 'The Buzz' Alvarez; Cary Elwes as Brigadier Gubbins - 'M'; Alex Pettyfer as Capt. Geoffrey Appleyard; Hero Fiennes Tiffin as Henry Hayes; Babs Olusanmokun as Richard Heron - **Runtime:** 2h 00m - **First release (the US):** 8 April 2024 - **Genres:** Action, Comedy, War, Adventure - **Budget:** $60 million - **Box office:** $30 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvwDen1Wrx8 ## Where to watch in Slovenia Not streaming, renting or buying in Slovenia at the last check. Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, ID, IE, IN, IS, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, MY, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PH, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, TH, TR, US, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *The Man from U.N.C.L.E.* (2015), Fi1m 64: Ritchie and Cavill in better suits, with jokes that arrive before the gunfire. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-man-from-u-n-c-l-e.md) - *Inglourious Basterds* (2009), Fi1m 92: The film this one keeps glancing at, where the Nazis are allowed to be frightening. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/inglourious-basterds.md) - *Where Eagles Dare* (1968): Burton and Eastwood on a castle raid; the mission film with the plot this lacks. - *Army of Shadows* (1969): Melville’s French Resistance, where every risk is real and nobody grins. - *Operation Mincemeat* (2021), Fi1m 66: Another improbable British wartime scheme, played straight and worrying about the details. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/operation-mincemeat.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/the-ministry-of-ungentlemanly-warfare