Ungentlemanly Warfare, huh, what is it good for? CREDIT: Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures/Lionsgate

Challengers

Starring: Zendaya, Josh O’Connor, Mike Faist

Director: Luca Guadagnino

Running Time: 131 Minutes

Rating: R

Release Date: April 26, 2024 (Theaters)

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare

Starring: Henry Cavill, Eiza González, Alan Ritchson, Henry Golding, Alex Pettyfer, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Babs Olusanmokun, Cary Elwes, Til Schweiger, Henrique Zaga, Rory Kinnear, Danny Sapani, Freddie Fox

Director: Guy Ritchie

Running Time: 120 Minutes

Rating: R

Release Date: April 19, 2024 (Theaters)

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is giving off major Inglourious Basterds Vibes. (I know I’m not the only one to think this!) Which is to say, IB was basically Quentin Tarantino saying: if I had been there during WWII, it would’ve gone a little like this. And so, with TMoUW, just replace Tarantino with Guy Ritchie. Alternatively, it could be called “James Bond vs. the Nazis.” Ian Fleming is a character in this movie, after all! It’s surprising it took so long for a film with a logline like that to come out, honestly.

Luca Guadagnino pulled off a similar approach with Challengers, but with love and double faults instead of war and double crosses. Basically, I imagine he was watching some Grand Slam matches and then said to himself, if I were controlling the players, it would go a little something like this. And when Luca G. does things his way, you know they’re all DTF.

Grades:
Challengers: The Neverending Tiebreak
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: A Lot of Characters Are Killed, and I Was Mostly Able to Repeat to Myself, “It’s Just a Movie, I Should Really Just Relax”