Movies | ICYMI Gems

Why is The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare not more beloved?

Guy Ritchie made the most Guy Ritchie film of his career, and it’s timely fare, but you probably missed it

This summer and fall, I (Kay) am making a concerted effort to circle back to interesting or compelling films that quietly came and went without me seeing them, focusing on movies between one and five years old and looking for those hidden gems; this week, we’re looking at The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, the 2024 Nazi-bashing, based-on-true-events-(ish) Action-Comedy War film from Guy Ritchie that scratched an, as it turns out, really-itchy itch of mine.

In The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, killin’ Nazis is an absolute gas; it could not be or look more fun.

I’ve been casting about in recent cinematic history for overlooked gems, and I think I’ve found another one.

Goodness gracious — have y’all seen The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare?

It’s hard to say whether you have or haven’t, because while it was an enormous flop at the box office (earning not even $30 million against a $60 million budget), I have also seen an incredible proliferation of (stolen) clips of this film on YouTube recently, suggesting people are watching it, if only in clips.

I get it. It’s very clippable, and any given 90–120 second segment of this film is bound to be pretty fun, because it’s a fun, episodic movie.

The casting is perfect; the script is competent and fun; the performances are deeply charming and winning. I wouldn’t say this is Guy Ritchie’s best work (Snatch), but it might be his most fun movie.

Like Zack Snyder’s films, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is a super-gay movie that (probably) doesn’t have any idea how homoerotic it actually is, which is great fun, and (with the caveat that this whole movie is very Male Gaze-y) no one who appears in this film has ever looked hotter.

I may just be telling on myself, but good grief, this is one of the sexiest casts that’s ever been assembled.

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare has a lot going for it, but most of all, it is positively chock-full of what I’m discovering is my favorite thing in all of film: utter contempt for the lives of Nazis, and here, to a gung-ho, enthusiastic degree I haven’t seen since Inglorious Basterds.

It never stops being fun!

I think this (partial) list of Nazi deaths in The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (from List of Deaths Wiki) humorously illustrates my point. Nazi lives are cheap; or at least they should be.

You could say The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is in the Nazi-killin’ business, and, cousin, business is a-boomin’.

Again, not at the box-office, though I wish it had been otherwise.

Watching this, I realized, we used to have a lot more explicitly-anti-Nazi, violent content. I think we need to get back to that. Something has emboldened fascists and Nazis in the last 10 or 15 years, and I’ve noticed that, right alongside that, we seemed to have lost our appetite for content in which Nazis are persecuted and mercilessly slaughtered.

Maybe one has something to do with the other.

I’ve found that, for me, all other things being equal, I like stories more if there’s an element of killing Nazis in them, especially if the stories make the Nazi-killing really fun and appealing, which this movie absolutely does.

Streaming platforms are very sensitive to trends. If you, like me, would like to see more Nazi-bashing in film, then vote with your click and throw on The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. Signal to the folks who are counting that this kind of content scratches that itch for you, too.

[embed]The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare Review on ReelRank Review of The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare - 👍 Recommended, 7.0 / 10. Listen, times being what they are, all…review.reelrank.net

We’re actively trying to uncover hidden gems from the last few years, so if you’ve got a suggestion for a movie that deserved more fanfare than it got, leave it in a Response here or email us at icymi@reelrank.net.

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