Henry Cavill and Alan Ritchson win hearts in The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, bringing a World War II-style brotherhood to life amid explosive action and sharp humor. Playing real-life soldiers turned secret agents, Cavill’s suave, Bond-esque Gus March-Phillips and Ritchson’s fierce, witty Anders Lassen bring both emotion and drama to this wild post-modern spy adventure.

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, released in April 2024, stands out as one of director Guy Ritchie’s more underrated films. The explosive World War II action-comedy feature, set in 1942, takes inspiration from the real-life story of Operation Postmaster, led by Winston Churchill’s covert espionage group, the Special Operations Executive. The film features an eclectic cast of ragtag spies and soldiers who must engage in a daring, deadly mission to strike back against the Nazis and Adolf Hitler during the early years of World War II. The entire cast in the film is utterly fantastic, but most notable among its ensemble are Henry Cavill as Gus March-Phillips and Reacher star Alan Ritchson as Anders Lassen. Both actors portray real-life soldiers who fought for the British Army against the Axis Powers, and they also present the perfect bromance in this highly entertaining film.

The Opening Sequence Establishes the Amusing Postmodern War Movie Style

Ritchie utilizes an amusing postmodern style in depicting The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, which is infused throughout the pre-title sequence. The film opens with Cavill’s March-Phillips and Ritchson’s Lassen masquerading as Swedish sailors on their boat in Nazi-controlled waters in the Atlantic Ocean. German officers board their vessel from a heavily armed naval vessel. The strict German officers are there to search the ship, and they mean business. However, March-Phillips and Lassen are not bothered, treating the dangerous scenario with lackadaisical mirth. The commanding officer of the boarding party orders his men to pour kerosene all over the boat, threatening the sailors with the choice of jumping overboard to swim to shore or trying to survive on a burning boat.

The situation soon takes a dramatic turn, as the armed sailors investigating below deck are ambushed by Henry Hayes (Hero Fiennes Tiffin) using a machine gun. March-Phillips and Lassen then clean up the rest of the soldiers above deck with bloody efficiency. Lassen brutally dispatches the sailors with his knife, slicing the arrogant commanding officer’s throat. After killing all the German soldiers, the men gather above deck, and Lassen picks up the body of the dead commanding officer, waving his arms like a puppet at the neighboring German vessel as the warship prepares to blow away the SOE’s boat. However, the SOE members are soon joined by the frogman Freddy Alvarez (Henry Golding), who infiltrated the German vessel earlier and planted an explosive. The German naval vessel then goes up in a giant kaboom. The opening scene establishes that the ragtag motley crew of the SOE knows how to handle themselves when dealing with Nazis. The humorous, over-the-top, and outrageous violence sets the tone for an incredibly entertaining and wild experience.

Interestingly, Cavill’s character, Gus March-Phillips, served as the real-life inspiration for the iconic British spy James Bond. James Bond’s creator, Ian Fleming (Freddie Fox), has a role in the film as one of the commanding officers who dispatches the SOE on their mission. Cavill certainly channels a James Bond-style energy for the role of March-Phillips, exuding a suaveness and roguish charm that resembles Bond. Cavill certainly has the swagger and devil-may-care man-of-action style that fans and moviegoers love about James Bond. His role in The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is likely the closest moviegoers will ever come to seeing Cavill portray the character, and the film does not disappoint in that regard. However, Cavill’s onscreen bromance with Ritchson’s Lassen still stands out as a highlight of the film.

Henry Cavill and Alan Ritchson Provide an Entertaining Bromance in the Film

Ritchson’s character, Anders Lassen, was a real-life Danish man who joined the British army to fight Nazis. Lassen’s humorous, jovial personality contrasts with his ruthless efficiency, which he utilizes to kill Nazis and enemy soldiers throughout the film. Cavill and Ritchson, as the film’s leads, display fantastic, believable chemistry and share an entertaining dynamic. They defuse the tension of being threatened by German soldiers early on, with Lassen jokingly telling the soldiers to shoot March-Phillips while they have the chance. Rather than an adversarial relationship, Lassen and March-Phillips act like comrades-in-arms who have worked together before, and they are well-versed in each other’s skills and abilities. Cavill and Ritchson depict their characters as seasoned veterans. When dealing with the German soldiers, it looks like they have had experience performing similar operations. The incredible rapport between the two superstar acting talents represents one of the most enjoyable aspects of The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare plays like an appropriate spiritual successor or cousin to Quentin Tarantino’s pulpy, postmodern men-on-a-mission World War II movie, Inglorious Basterds. Although both films take a fictionalized view of history, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare does not go quite as far with its alternative take. The film offers audiences an exuberant good time, buoyed by fun, charismatic performances by Cavill and Ritchson.