Movie Review: The Ministry Of Ungentlemanly Warfare (2024)

Genre: War Action  

Director: Guy Ritchie  

Starring: Henry Cavill, Eiza González, Alan Ritchson, Alex Pettyfer, Cary Elwes, Henry Golding  

Running Time: 122 minutes  

Synopsis: In 1941, Nazi Germany's U-boats control the Atlantic Ocean and the United Kingdom stands alone in Europe. Winston Churchill (Rory Kinnear) authorizes a secret commando raid to blow up an Italian U-boat supply ship anchored off the East African coast. Hardened criminal Gus March-Phillipps (Henry Cavill) and Denmark's Anders Lassen (Alan Ritchson) lead the mission, approaching their target by sea. Meanwhile, intelligence agents Marjorie Stewart (Eiza González) and Richard Heron (Babs Olusanmokun) are tasked with distracting the on-shore Nazi commander Heinrich Luhr (Til Schweiger).

What Works Well: Loosely based on the actual World War Two Operation Postmaster, this jovial romp is part throwback to mission-focused war movies, and part just-kill-all-the-Nazis video game style nonsense. Humour is never far from the surface, with the best laughs generated by insatiable killing machine Lassen. The quite brilliant Christopher Benstead music score is a most respectful salute to Ennio Morricone.

What Does Not Work As Well: The mindless entertainment sails dangerously close to a tick-box exercise, with most scenes soullessly borrowed from other movies. The characterizations are thin enough to disappear into the ocean, too much of the muddled action takes place at night, and the plot twists are simultaneously sketched-in and over-complicated. The sequences featuring Marjorie Stewart's seduction of Heinrich Luhr are a bad combination of prolonged and unconvincing.

Key Quote:

Anders Lassen: I'm not leaving until I have a barrel full of Nazi hearts.



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Movie Review: Back Roads (2018)

Genre: Drama  

Director: Alex Pettyfer  

Starring: Alex Pettyfer, Jennifer Morrison, Nicola Peltz, Juliette Lewis, Robert Patrick  

Running Time: 101 minutes  

Synopsis: Harley (Alex Pettyfer) is a young man struggling to care for his three younger sisters after their mother Bonnie (Juliette Lewis) was imprisoned for killing her abusive husband. Eldest sister Amber (Nicola Peltz) is now a rebellious teenager and eager to make life miserable for her brother. 12 year-old middle sister Misty is quiet and withdrawn, while the youngest sibling Jody is only six years old. Harley is attracted to older married neighbour Callie (Jennifer Morrison), but as they start an affair, he is increasingly haunted by childhood trauma and overwhelmed by his responsibilities.

What Works Well: Co-writers Adrian Lyne and Tawni O'Dell (adapting her book) create a disturbingly dark portrait of a family wrecked by abuse and violence. In his directorial debut, Alex Pettyfer commands the challenging material and demonstrates maturity to register impact with understatement, his own performance a study in exhausted complexity. He is supported by a trio of bold women: Jennifer Morrison embraces lust that turns into a gateway for danger; Nicola Peltz is a study in misdirected antagonism; and Juliette Lewis shares a devastating scene with Pettyfer across the prison glass. 

What Does Not Work As Well: There is an awful lot going on in this family, and none of it is good. The featureless suburban setting and grim brown tones underline a depressed mood as the plot works hard to snuff out any ambers of hope.

Conclusion: Haunting, blunt, and essential.



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Movie Review: Magic Mike (2012)

An excuse for quality gawking of the guilty kind, Magic Mike combines set-pieces of male strippers strutting their stuff with a bland script, and lands somewhere between an enjoyable night out and a tortuously unconvincing drama.

In Tampa, Florida, Michael "Magic Mike" Lane (Channing Tatum) is a popular stripper by night and an aspiring entrepreneur during the day, working a series of jobs to help finance the launch of his own furniture business. Mike works at a club owned by Dallas (Matthew McConaughey), a former stripper now focussing on the business and hoping to relocate the club to the more lucrative Miami market. Mike enjoys the company of friend-with-benefits Joanna (Olivia Munn), but at 30 years old he is getting old for stripping and feels the pressure to get on with his life.

At a construction site Mike meets the unemployed 19 year old Adam (Alex Pettyfer), invites him down to the club, and thrusts him on stage. Adam proves to be a decent stripper and joins the club as a regular performer known as "The Kid", much to the consternation of his sister Brooke (Cody Horn), a nurse. Mike starts to romantically pursue Brooke, and assures her that he will look after Adam's welfare. But the life of stripping, sex, and drugs does catch up with Adam, while Mike grows impatient with Dallas blocking his business ambitions, and Brooke wonders if Mike is a man worth pursuing.

Loosely inspired by a real-life episode in Tatum's life, Magic Mike is a relatively innocuous night of wild fun. The movie entertains without engaging, the showier elements leaving a mark and a smile, while the recycled drama and characters quickly slip into forgettable territory.

When the men are on the stage, bodies glistening and gyrating, the women in the audience whooping and hollering, and the music thumping, Magic Mike is at its best. Director Steven Soderbergh packs his movie with plenty of stage highlights, and although these scenes do little to advance the plot, they inject undeniable energy. Soderbergh steers clear of jerky cameras and micro-edits, allowing the dancing to flow with sensual fluidity and capturing the attraction of sexy but harmless revues.

Less convincing is the drama surrounding Mike and Adam. The story of the innocent newcomer thrust into the world of spotlights and sin is just too trite to resonate, while the push for romance between Mike and Brooke never gains traction. Worse of all is the contrived tension between Mike and Dallas, a barely developed simmering dispute having something to do with Mike seeking an equity stake while Dallas is not too eager to share his empire.

Matthew McConaughey stands out with the most magnetic performance, creating in Dallas the club puppet master, and displaying a sinewy athleticism to go along with an oily personality. Channing Tatum and Alex Pettyfer get by on looks and minimal acting talent, while Cody Horn contributes a welcome natural presence but sometimes veers towards the amateurish.

Mike is pure magic on the stage, but rather mundane off it.

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Movie Review: I Am Number Four (2011)

A lightweight action movie, I Am Number Four has only the most rudimentary plot elements and satisfies itself with a succession of chaotic fight scenes as a few aliens wage noisy battles in suburbia.

Taking refuge on Earth, John Smith (Alex Pettyfer) is Number Four, one of nine teens with special combat powers rescued from planet Lorien when it was sacked by the invading evil Mogadorians. Smith is protected by his guardian and mentor Henri (Timothy Olyphant), who keeps the two of them on the move to avoid the Mogadorian death squads that have already disposed of Numbers One, Two, and Three.

John and Henri arrive in the town of Paradise, Ohio, where John tries to blend in at the local high school. He befriends the local nerd Sam (Callan McAuliffe), and is immediately attracted to Sarah (Dianna Agron), an amateur photographer. John also has the usual unpleasant encounters with Sarah's former boyfriend Mark (Jake Abel) and his jock friends. It isn't long before the Mogadorians track down John and Henri, resulting in a fight to the death in which some unexpected allies, including Number Six (Teresa Palmer), join forces with John.

Based on the teen-oriented novel of the same name, I Am Number Four tries to reach for a broader audience, but the source material is severely limited. Director D. J. Caruso (Eagle Eye) can do little with humourless characters and a backstory sketched with the thickest of markers. The Mogadorians are pure comic-book level evil designed to intimidate the easily impressed, and the actors all appear out of their depth on the big screen.

The action scenes are a jumble of light, whirling bodies, glowing ancient knives and massive guns that achieve disproportionately minimal damage. The outcome of I Am Number Four is never in doubt, and the only question is how much of Paradise will be lost to wanton destruction before the credits roll.

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