Worth Mentioning - The Game Is Afoot

We watch several movies a week. Every Friday, we'll talk a little about some of the movies we watched that we felt were Worth Mentioning.

War, mystery, shampoo, and Joe Bob.

THE MINISTRY OF UNGENTLEMANLY WARFARE (2024)

Something seemed to get bungled in the release of director Guy Ritchie’s World War II “men on a mission” movie The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, which came and went in theatres and couldn’t even manage to make $30 million while it was there. It’s a shame, because the movie – which had a reasonable budget of $60 million – is really interesting and entertaining, with a cool “spaghetti western” vibe to it at times.

Ritchie wrote the script with Paul Tamasy, Eric Johnson, and Arash Amel, drawing inspiration from the information shared in the Damien Lewis book Churchill's Secret Warriors: The Explosive True Story of the Special Forces Desperadoes of WWII. Set in 1941, it tells the story of Operation Postmaster, which is set up by Brigadier Colin Gubbins (Cary Elwes) with the unofficial support of Prime Minister Winston Churchill (Rory Kinnear) and partially concocted by Lieutenant Commander Ian Fleming (Freddie Fox) – who is, yes, the man who would go on to start writing the James Bond novels a decade later. And his experience working on Operation Postmaster was said to be one of the things that inspired him to create Bond, with soldier Gus March-Phillipps said to be the person who had the biggest direct influence on Fleming’s vision for Bond.

Henry Cavill, the runner-up to Daniel Craig when James Bond was being cast for Casino Royale twenty years ago, plays March-Phillipps, who does have a fondness for good drinks and good smokes, but doesn’t really come off as all that Bondian in this film, especially with the wild hair and heavy facial hair the character sports here. He makes for a cool hero, though, and it’s fun to watch him go on his mission with the assistance of the hulking bruiser Anders Lassen (Alan Ritchson), who takes out villains with his bow and arrow in some standout moments and an axe in another; the young Henry Hayes (Hero Fiennes Tiffin); demolitions expert Freddy Alvarez (Henry Golding); and Geoffrey Appleyard (Alex Pettyfer), who March-Phillipps and the others have to rescue from Nazi clutches before he can join the mission.

Operation Postmaster involves our heroes sailing to the Spanish-controlled island Fernando Po in Equatorial Guinea, where they’re to sink the Italian supply ship Duchessa d'Aosta and its two tugboats, disrupting the U-boat resupply operation so the German submarines will no longer be able to sink the Allied Powers’ boats in the Atlantic. While they’re making their way toward Fernando Po, actress/singer Marjorie Stewart (Eiza González) and Richard Heron (Babs Olusanmokun), who runs a casino on the island, are already there, with Stewart going undercover as a gold trader from New York so she can seduce and distract the local commanding officer, Til Schweiger as Heinrich Luhr. 

The operation does not play out in the way anyone expected, allowing Ritchie to drop in some twists and turns – and more action.

I had a good time watching The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, which has a strong “dad movie” feeling to it. This is definitely the sort of movie I would have watched with my father back in the day, and I’m certain that fans of action movies, as he was, would enjoy checking this one out. It may not be exactly historically accurate, but it’s a good way to spend two hours.

SHAMPOO (1975)

The cinematic landscape was very different back in 1975, as evident by the fact that the top three highest-grossing films of the year were Jaws (the film that led to a massive change in said cinematic landscape; the first summer blockbuster), the ultimately heartbreaking comedic drama and Best Picture winner One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and the comedy Shampoo, which comes off as rather stuffy and slow-paced when viewed now, fifty years later. Why was Shampoo such a success? I couldn’t tell you, unless it came down entirely to how popular some of the actors were at the time, particularly star Warren Beatty.

Beatty also produced the film and wrote the screenplay with Robert Towne. Directed by Hal Ashby, the film is set in November of 1968 and sees Beatty taking on the role of Beverly Hills hairdresser George Roundy, who uses his job as a way to get into the sack with many of his female clients. Currently, George’s two main ladies are the older Felicia Karpf (Lee Grant, who won an Oscar for her performance) and the anxiety-ridden actress Jill Haynes (Goldie Hawn). George works at a salon run by the mediocre Norman (Jay Robinson), but dreams of opening his own place... he just can’t afford it. So he seeks funding from the wealthy Lester Karpf (Jack Warden), who not only happens to be Felicia’s husband, but is also having an affair with George’s ex Jackie Shawn (Julie Christie), who is “the one that got away” in George’s life. And is also friends with Jill. This leads to an awkward situation where Lester, who assumes George is gay (as does Felicia’s daughter Lorna, played by Carrie Fisher, but he proves otherwise to her), asks George to escort Jackie to a Republican party on election night, the night Nixon was elected.

Although it’s billed as a comedy, Shampoo isn’t exactly a laugh riot, at least not at this point. It comes off more like an awkward character study, following the unlikeable George from scene to scene and from woman to woman. The story never manages to draw me in, so I find the film’s 110 minute running time a slog to get through – and in most cases when I have tried to watch the movie, it has taken me multiple attempts to make it all the way to the end credits. Still, the actors deliver good performances playing their mostly unlikeable characters (Jill is the best of the bunch), and it’s interesting to see what had movie-goers flocking to the theatres, and was apparently entertaining them in a major way, back in ‘75.

ENOLA HOLMES (2020)

I have some familiarity with the Arthur Conan Doyle-created character Sherlock Holmes; the world’s greatest detective, or at least the greatest one that doesn’t dress up as a bat on a regular basis. Most of my familiarity comes from adaptations of the horror-esque story The Hound of the Baskervilles and movies starring Robert Downey Jr., but I was aware that Sherlock had a brother named Mycroft and an enemy called Moriarty – although, I have to admit that I sometimes get Mycroft and Moriarty mixed up. Sherlock was created in 1887 – and in 2006, author Nancy Springer decided to expand the Sherlock universe by giving the character a sister named Enola, twenty years his junior. Springer has written multiple books about Enola Holmes over the years, and in 2020 the character made her screen debut in a movie that was released through the Netflix streaming service and stars Millie Bobby Brown.

I haven’t read any of Springer’s work, but I did find the movie Enola Holmes, which was directed by Harry Bradbeer from a screenplay by Jack Thorne, to be a fun movie, even though I’m not exactly a member of the target audience (which would primarily be teenage girls), carried by an entertaining performance from Brown.

According to this story, Enola was raised by her mother Eudoria (Helena Bonham Carter) in the empty nest their home became after Sherlock and Mycroft went off to live their lives. Eudoria handled Enola’s education entirely herself and also gave her jujitsu lessons. On Enola’s sixteenth birthday, Eudoria goes missing – which allows Sherlock and Mycroft, played by Henry Cavill and Sam Claflin, to enter the picture and have supporting roles. Rather than go off to the finishing school that Mycroft wants to send her to, Enola decides to go searching for their missing mother. While on this mission, she crosses paths with a boy around her own age, Viscount Tewkesbury (Louis Partridge), whose life is in danger due to politic reasons tied to the upcoming vote for the Reform Bill. The Tewkesbury situation turns out to be quite the distraction for Enola, who decides to help her new friend even though this puts her life in danger as well.

This may be a movie about kids that was made for kids, but it doesn’t hesitate to put its young characters in danger and can get surprisingly dark at times. Not everybody makes it out of this movie alive, and there’s even a moment where a man attempts to drown Enola. The movie is 123 minutes but moves along at a good pace and has some moments of action.

I don’t know how well this story would tie to the Sherlock Holmes canon, if it can fit into it at all, but I found it to be an enjoyable watch.

FUTURE HUNTERS (1986) – Hosted by Joe Bob Briggs on MonsterVision

As the world headed into the year 2000, MonsterVision, the genre movie presentation on TNT that was hosted by drive-in critic Joe Bob Briggs, was on its way out. As of January 15th, the show that had formerly been a double feature program was cut down to just one movie, and a few months later TNT would be informing Joe Bob that his hosting services were no longer needed... but on January 22, TNT did give him the chance to host one hell of a movie: the action adventure film Future Hunters. You know that 1980s Maxell commercial where the guy sits in a chair, puts on his music cassette, and gets his hair blown back by the strength of the sound? This movie can have the same effect on the viewer because it’s so packed with insanity, you never know what kind of action it’s going to throw in your face next.

This movie has it all. A car chase in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, time travel, globe-trotting adventure, jungle exploration, Nazis, Amazons, Mongol warriors, a cave-dwelling tribe of dwarves, helicopter and plane mishaps, martial arts fights, hungry crocodiles, gratuitous bare skin from the lead actress, the lead actor being threatening while wearing tighty whitey underwear, a power-hungry madman... Pretty much anything you could hope to see in a low budget action flick, it can be found in Future Hunters.

The story crafted by writers Anthony Maharaj and J. Lee Thompson begins in 2025, almost 40 years after The Great Holocaust. The world has been reduced to ruin, famine, and despair in the bitter aftermath of war. Mankind’s last hope lies in a fabled object that can turn back time and undo the evil which has befallen the world: the Spear of Longinus, which pierced the side of Jesus Christ during the crucifixion and now holds the power of creation. The rebel Matthew (Richard Norton) is on a quest to find the spear, which leads him on a Mad Max-ian chase through a desert wasteland ruled by a cruel warlord. When he locates the crystal tip of the spear, he’s zapped back to the outskirts of Los Angeles in 1986, where he saves aspiring anthropologist Michelle (Linda Carol) and her high-strung former Marine boyfriend Slade (Robert Patrick) from a group of bikers... then dies. The spear is left in the hands of Michelle and Slade, who have to reunite it with its shaft and save the world.

They don’t get right on it. Michelle opens the diner that was left to her by her father as normal... but then a bunch of Nazi goons come by and smash the place up, pushing them into action. The first bit of action involves a low-key car chase that ends with a car exploding due to a minor collision. Their quest for the shaft leads them to Hong Kong, where they’re met by a character played by Bruce Li, who proceeds to engage in a random kung fu fight with a guy called Silverfox, played by Wang Chang Lee. More chases and altercations occur before our heroes are flying off for a trek through the jungle in the Philippines, where they encounter the aforementioned Amazons, Mongols, and dwarves. And more Nazis. There are always Nazis. And somehow, for almost the entire journey through the jungle, Michelle manages to keep her high heels on.

Joe Bob gets his hosting segment started by giving some advice to his younger viewers, coaching them on how to torment their sister by copying her. He gives the movie a 3.5 star rating, making it just a half-star short of a perfect score, and during the hosting segments he points out how the film switches from being a Mad Max knock-off to becoming an Indiana Jones knock-off (with Michelle being both the archaeologist and the cafe owner, so she’s Harrison Ford and Karen Allen in one), discusses the career of Richard Norton, talks about the Spear of Longinus and doubts that Roman soldiers had crystal spears, is shocked by the amount of times Michelle is assaulted, talks about the career of Bruce Li; names Li’s fight with Wang Chang Lee as one of the funniest, most imaginatively choreographed kung fu matches ever filmed; digs into the career of director Cirio Santiago, the King of Filipino Exploitation Cinema; laughs about the fact that a car chase begins at night but somehow ends in broad daylight, marvels at the crazy mixture of elements in the movie, drools over a couple of the Amazons, and discusses the state of Filipino cinema.

Along the way, Joe Bob is visited by Rusty the Mail Girl, who shares viewer mail from a fan who was disappointed that Joe Bob had been showing too many mainstream, non-horror movies lately, and they exchange jokes about how men and women age like fine wine. At the end of the episode, Joe Bob also wrapped things up with a bad joke, as he always did... and with that joke, an excellent episode of MonsterVision came to an end.

The show was on its last legs when Future Hunters aired, but this was an awesome episode nonetheless. Every fan of bad movies should seek out Future Hunters, especially if they can watch it with Joe Bob hosting.