While there isn’t much to describe in terms of character arcs, Guy Ritchie’s latest, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare has a couple of things going for it. It’s based on a recently declassified (2016) true event of World War II, it has an enjoyable cast, and it’s always fun to see Nazis get punched, and get there comeuppance.

Feeling a bit like a throwback to war films like The Guns of Navarone, and Where Eagles Dare, but with modern-day storytelling, editing, and action beats, the story follows Gus March-Phillips (Henry Cavill) and his team, Anders (Alan Ritchson), Appleyard (Alex Pettyfer), Hayes (Hero Fiennes Tiffin) and Alvarez (Henry Golding) as they undertake a mission for the British Empire.

An off-the-books from Churchill (Rory Kinnear) and funneled to March-Phillips through M (Cary Elwes) and Ian Fleming (Freddie Fox).

There is a tanker, which has enough supplies to keep U-boats in the Atlantic ocean running for months, possibly years. She’s the Duchessa d’Aosta and she has been seized by the Nazis, anchored in the harbor of a neutral country, and guarded by two German controlled tugs, not to mention a mass of Nazis stationed in the local town. All of whom seem to frequent a bar run by Heron (Babs Olusanmokun), who is also part of the mission.

Heron is joined by Marjorie (Eiza Gonzalez), who is there to take care of Heinrich Luhr (Til Schweiger), the head of the German forces.

The plan is to sneak into the harbor, and blow up the Duchess, but, of course, things don’t work out exactly as planned.

Of course, there are liberties taken with the story for dramatic effect, and while the film doesn’t spend as much time enjoying the fellowship of the team as they should, it does feel like there’s a real connection between them, and Ritchie, the script, and the actors are able to mine some nice moments for all the characters.

It moves quickly, and rolls along fairly enjoyably, with a score by Christopher Benstead that seems to help the film harken back to the war films of yesteryear with an almost Ennio Morricone composition that is, on occasion, sprinkled with some jazzy drum riffs.

It’s a fun, if fairly standard paint-by-numbers war film that doesn’t let its cast shine as much as it should, though pairing Ritchson and Cavill together makes for a lot of fun, and I’d want to see more of the pair together.