Directed and co-written by Guy Ritchie, this action-comedy tells the incredible true story of the first-ever special forces organization formed during WWII by UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill and a small group of military officials including author Ian Fleming. The top secret combat unit, composed of a motley crew of rogues and mavericks led by Gus March-Phillipps (Henry Cavill), goes on a daring mission against the Nazis using entirely unconventional and utterly “ungentlemanly” fighting techniques. Ultimately, the task force’s audacious approach changed the course of the war and laid the foundation for the British SAS and modern black ops warfare.

For in-depth thoughts on The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, please see my colleague Brandon Lewis’s review from its original theatrical debut here.

For a look at the SteelBook packaging, check out my unboxing video here.

Video Quality

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare rallies with a 2160p/HDR10 presentation in 2.39:1 on this 4K UHD Blu-Ray disc. The uptick in detail is welcome in the textures of the locales, costumes, and production design. This presentation impresses with black levels that are faithfully deep and detailed with digital noise nearly absent from the screen. Countless shadowy shots show no signs of crush. Brighter scenes like those showing the daytime missions wow with intense clarity and a strong handle of highlights that show no evidence of blooming.

The 4K presentation provides a depth of field that simply cannot be replicated as well with the accompanying Blu-Ray. This transfer shows a fetching amount of detail in even the smallest facets of the vessels and articles of clothing. Skin tones look very consistent throughout and show a great amount of facial detail including beards and makeup. Color highlights are another area of substantial improvement in comparison to the Blu-Ray thanks to the HDR10. It is surprising not to see Dolby Vision here, but the presentation does not look notably worse off for its exclusion. Colors look more natural in this presentation with moments of fiery explosions emanating off the screen with force. This is an excellent 4K UHD presentation that represents the film quite well.

Audio Quality

This disc comes equipped with a boisterous Dolby Atmos presentation that fully transports you into this time. Dialogue is presented clearly without ever being drowned out by any of the competing sonic elements. There are qualities of this track that are truly enveloping, such as the sounds of explosions and certain vessels that flow through in a way that dominates the height channels. Sounds are carefully rendered with pinpoint directionality from the more kinetic scenes to the handful of dialogue-driven expository moments.

The score conjures a rousing tone that amps up the emotional stakes. The low end is engaged exceptionally well during the action onslaughts. The sound design of this film is quite intense, and the implementation of environmental sounds is executed very effectively. The mix here is very well done with nice engagement of all the channels, so those with a good system should be pleased. There are optional English, English SDH, and Spanish subtitles provided.

Special Features

This release comes with an optional sleek new SteelBook exclusively at Amazon that is quite fetching in person. The SteelBook features a removable clear slipcase displaying a grenade held like a cup of tea, and the rear features a pack with another grenade in it. The interior sports a photo of the team in front of a fiery explosion. Video of the SteelBook can be found at the top of this review.

The Ministry of Filmmaking: A 24-minute featurette in which the cast and crew discuss the development of the film, assembling the cast, the qualities of the characters, the history behind the story, the direction of Guy Ritchie, and more.
Theatrical Trailer: The two-minute trailer is provided.

Final Thoughts

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is not the best version of itself, but it still provides plenty of fun and thrilling moments. There are so many individual elements to applaud, but director Guy Ritchie has difficulty bringing all the threads together in a cohesive manner. For such an exciting premise, the filmmaker allows things to get surprisingly dull during small stretches of the story. Thankfully, you are never too far away from a charismatic personality to snap your attention back into place. We wish the script could have been given another pass to elevate this further, but it works well enough. Lionsgate Home Entertainment has released a 4K UHD Blu-Ray that sports a stellar A/V presentation and a couple of special features. If you are a fan of Guy Ritchie, this should treat you well. Recommended

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is currently available to purchase on 4K UHD Blu-ray, Blu-Ray, DVD and Digital. There is a 4K UHD Blu-Ray SteelBook available exclusively at Amazon.

Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the 4K UHD Blu-Ray.

Disclaimer: Lionsgate Home Entertainment has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.