The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (2024)

During WWII, the British were having a hard time in the war thanks to the submarine warfare of Germany.  They discovered a weakness in the U-boat fleet; air filters.  If they could destroy enough air filters, it would hamstring the German U-boats' operations.  The Germans were sailing out of Fernando Po, a Spanish-held island off the coast of Africa.  Spain was neutral, so attacking German ships in port was an act of war.  Brigadier Gubbins (Cary Elwes), codename M, knew just the man for the job: Augustus 'Gus' March-Phillips (Henry Cavill).  Gus agreed to the mission but only if he could pick his team.  One of his choices was unavailable, as he was in a German camp.  No problem, we'll rescue him on the way.

The team is split in two parts: Heron (Babs Olusanmokun) and Marjorie Stewart (Eiza Gonzalez) traveled to Fernando Po openly, while Gus and his crew of commandos travel by sailboat.  Heron owned a bar on Fernando Po and collaborates with the British.  Marjorie was an entertainer and tasked with seducing the sadistic Nazi commander, Heinrich Luhr (Til Schweiger).  They were to scout the area and provide intel to the sailboat team.  Gus and crew had run-ins with both a German ship and a Royal Navy ship, both of whom wanted to stop them.

The movie is jam-packed with action.  Explosions, stabbings, shootings, hacking with axes, extreme archery, and even some fisticuffs and wrestling.  There is no shortage of blood and death.  What there is a shortage of is danger.  Even in the most dire circumstances, it never feels like the characters are threatened.  The crack team of commandos kill vast swathes of Nazis and rarely suffer a bruise.  In the final battle, one character took a bullet to the shoulder.  Ooh, that must sting.

Though based on a true story, it comes off as an over-the-top action extravaganza.  First, Anders Lassen (Alan Ritchson) is like a force of nature that just rips through Nazis like a hot knife through butter.  He kills multiple Nazis with a single arrow, clears the lower decks of a ship with an axe, slices, dices, and stabs Nazi sailors without suffering any injury other than a shirt stained with blood.  Is he some sort of superhero?  Marjorie is supposed to be the femme fatale who uses her wiles and sexuality to distract and seduce.  Of course, she's also the best shot, embarrassing the locals that Heron has recruited.  Luhr, who had been hyped as this nasty and formidable boss, was dispatched with ease.  Sigh.

There are some fun bits.  Ian Flemming (Freddie Fox) is M's adjutant.  When he said, "Fleming, Ian Fleming," I chuckled.  For those not in the know, Ian Flemming wrote the James Bond books and served in British Intelligence during World War II.  According to the IMDb Trivia, Gus March-Phillips was an inspiration for Bond.  Cavill, Ritchson, and Henry Golding have great chemistry, making a fine team.

As far as spy movies go, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. was better.  Still, this was good popcorn fun, as most Guy Ritchie films are.

The Covenant (2023)

Master Sergeant John Kinley (Jake Gyllenhaal) was in charge of a squad of men who scoured Afghanistan for weapons caches.  They might be operating as a checkpoint on a road, patrolling through towns, or even going to remote sites to investigate.  Of course, they needed an interpreter.  The last one having died, Kinley hired a new one, Ahmed (Dar Salim).  Their working relationship was soon strained as Ahmed frequently made decisions contrary to Kinley's instructions.  However, that this tended to achieve the stated goal kept Ahmed on the payroll.  That he saved the team from an ambush also added to his value.  During one interaction with a local source, the team learned of a weapons cache in the hinterlands.  They set out.  Though the operation went well initially, wave after wave of reinforcements attacked while the team awaited support.  Kinley and Ahmed found themselves separated alone in the Afghan wilderness and unable to call for support.  Could they get back to base before the Taliban found them?

The movie is told in three parts.  It starts with Kinley and his team operating in Afghanistan.  After the fight at the remote weapons store, it becomes a survival story with Kinley and Ahmed fleeing Taliban pursuit.  The final part sees Kinley trying to get a visa for Ahmed so he can be extracted from an increasingly hostile Afghanistan

The movie has some good action scenes and certainly has some tense moments, but it is mostly dull.  That the two main characters don't get along is important as far as the overall story but makes the pair less fun to watch.  Their conflict isn't the buddy cop humor arguments, but just oil and water not mixing.  Toward the end they have mutual respect and some light moments, but it's a long slog to get there.

Just okay.  Obviously, Guy Ritchie or Gyllenhaal fans should see it, but otherwise this is skip.

The Gentleman (2019)

Guy Ritchie's latest movie is a return to form, fitting with such great films as Snatch and Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels.  Mickey (Matthew McConaughey) is an American who came to England as a Rhodes Scholar.  While attending university, he found he had a talent for selling marijuana and turned it into a business.  Thanks to his high-end education, he has connections among the gentry.  However, at this late date, he is ready to leave the business, sellout and retire with his lovely wife, Rosalind (Michelle Dockery).  However, his plans to sell, interpreted as weakness, draw competitors to challenge him.

Much of the story is shown as a narration from Fletcher (Hugh Grant) as he spends the evening with Ray (Charlie Hunnam).  Fletcher is a reporter while Ray is Mickey's top fixer.  Fletcher has been following Mickey and discovering all sorts of secrets, which he reveals to Ray.  He wants to be bought off.  Failure to pay will mean he publishes a disastrous expose.  It looks very bad for Mickey.

The casting is terrific.  McConaughey is much more hard edged than his usual.  There is very little of his usual easy-going charm.  Michelle Dockery is very different from her most famous role as Lady Mary of Downton Abbey.  She curses like a sailor and speaks with a more working class accent.  Charlie Hunnam, who has had a rocky career in movies, is a perfect sidekick.  He's a straight man to Hugh Grant.  Hugh is very cheeky and full of himself.  Though he knows the doings of everyone, he only interacts with Hunnam and the banter is great fun.  Henry Golding, who I've only seen as a romantic lead (e.g. Crazy Rich Asians, A Simple Favor), offers a very different character.  He's an up and comer with delusions of grandeur.  A supremely confident naif.  Although I don't generally like Colin Farrell, he proves to be a great side character.  Having abandoned his pretty-boy looks, he is a good man who finds himself indebted to criminals but never corrupted by them.  He is the most admirable character in the movie though that is a low bar among this crowd.

As Fletcher is not always a reliable narrator, the story is sometime not quite true to the events.  Also, the story is often told out of order.  This is standard Ritchie and done well.  Great movie.  Go see it.

The Man from U.N.C.L.E

Our story opens with Napoleon Solo (Henry Cavill) crossing from West Berlin to East Berlin in 1963.  He seeks to convince Gaby Teller (Alicia Vikander) to defect and help him locate her missing father, a Nazi scientist who had been working for the United States until his disappearance two years ago.  Though she agrees, the pair are immediately pursued by Illya Kuryakin (Armie Hammer), a top KGB agent.  The two prove well-matched but it is Solo who wins by getting Gaby to West Berlin.  The following day, Solo and Kuryakin are shocked to discover that they have been made partners in order to prevent a nuclear weapon from being developed by a criminal organization.  Gaby's missing father is believed to be involved, so Gaby will go with them to help ferret him out.  The original series never explained how it was formed or the first meeting between Napoleon and Illya; this movie fills that gap.

 

I only saw one episode of the original series and it was no where near as funny as this.  Solo and Kuryakin have a very adversarial relationship that provides many opportunities for laughs.  However, as the movie progresses, the two clearly develop respect for each other.  The movie often plays for laughs in other ways too.  Solo is clearly the suave agent with gift for seduction and Gaby has already started to like him.  Thus, it is funny when she is instead paired with Illya, who will play her fiancée.  Illya is much less comfortable around women and such is played to the hilt with Gaby.

 

The movie ends with Alexander Waverley (Hugh Grant) of British Intelligence putting together a special team for a new agency, the United Network Command for Law and Enforcement (UNCLE).  There is clearly room for a sequel.  Though I liked the movie and give it a thumbs up, the box office looks insufficient to deserve a sequel.