Guerra Sem Regras

It has been awhile since I have seen something so predicable.

It felt like the script had been copied from the standard WW2 movie then all the quality suspense, excitement and character development which is normally in these movies replaced with vague attempts at humour and actors which feel like they are all running on idle.

There are so many good actors in this which could carry almost any movie but they have such a bad script to work.

The whole production feels like it is missing 95% of a good script to the point I am not sure they even had one and didn't just wing it and hope to put something together in editing, though as the actors deliver so poorly I assume they must be following a script.

Some good performances and a good story but it's let down by poor pacing and an almost complete lack of flair. It's feels like an 'action movie by numbers'. It doesn't have the charm of Kelly's Heroes, the dignity of The Guns of Navarone, the credibility of The Longest Day or the sheer star power and likeability of The Great Escape. If you're bored and want to watch Alan Ritchson play a Scandinavian Jack Reacher going on a nazi killing spree with the help of some friends then you might enjoy it. The fact that it's based on true events doesn't make it feel any more believable than any number of b-movie war films. It *could* have been great but it's a misfire. Perhaps a director who approached the subject more seriously would have had more success. Guy Ritchie seemed torn between doing a 'proper' war movie and doing his usual stylish blokey silliness, and the result is that this is neither.

The absolute worst thing about it is Rory Kinear who is horribly miscast as Winston Churchill. He's shocking. He looks nothing like him, despite mountains of prosthetics and he sounds like a northern comic doing a bad impression.

As a fan of both Henry Cavill and Guy Ritchie, I was thrilled to find an early access showing of this movie at a nearby theater.

Ungentlemanly Warfare looked to be a good time, and indeed it is! It's a neat story and they made the telling of it fun. Thankfully it isn't goofy. It's not nonstop jokes, but it has a good sense of humor and I heard a good bit of chuckling in the theater throughout the movie, much of it coming from myself.

You can tell Cavill had fun with this role. He shows off some range as his character is very different from the brooding muscle man that many people associate him with. It was delightful watching him do comedy. I haven't seen much of Alan Ritchson's work, but it was easy to see why he has such a growing fanbase. He's the muscle in this movie and proves to be a great action star. The whole cast is great and they give us a lot of fun characters.

Action-comedies seem to be Guy Ritchie's specialty. He maintains a good balance of action and comedy and works so well with large casts as he lets every character feel like they matter to the story.

It's basically the same premise as Tarantino's movie - get a cast of outcasts and go and mow through hordes of nazis.

Where Tarantino's version had some nuance, and bad guys actually had some sort of personality, motivation, and charm, here it feels like a Call of Duty game, where NPCs are just standing there, waiting to be shot by the main character.

The only redeeming qualities are - it's apparently based on a true story, the cast is good, and it's a technically competent execution.

If you need a mindless action movie - you might enjoy it, but it's far from the best work of Guy Ritchie, and quite honestly - sad to see the bar has fallen so low for him.

Let me start with the positives.

Like most Guy Ritchie films, the ensemble has great chemistry. Henry Cavill doesn't disappoint, he keeps the pace going and interactions between everyone fun to watch. Alan Ritchson does great as a force of nature, dude is built like a tank. Babs Olusanmokun is slick, he has a very smooth demeanor to his performance. Lastly, Eiza Gonzalez is absolutely beautiful, however her performance was hit or miss for me. But she hit more than she missed.

Now, the negatives.

The movie doesn't feel like it was even made by Guy Ritchie. Instead it feels like someone else were trying to make a "Guy Ritchie" film.

I would watch it again, but it is not in my recommendation list if I were to convince someone to get into Guy Ritchie films.