British film director Guy Ritchie is an acknowledged master of the crime comedy. Few others can so dashingly twist the plot, balance humor with seriousness and harmoniously combine the unconnected. Guy Ritchie’s films have literally made the world love British cinema anew, and some of them have earned the title of cult films.
Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare
- Genre: Drama, War, History
- USA, UK production / 2024
- Directed by Guy Ritchie
- Cast: Henry Cavill, Alan Richson, Cary Elwes, Isa Gonzalez, Hiro Fiennes Tiffin, Alex Pettyfer, Henry Golding, Freddie Fox, Til Schweiger, Babs Olusanmokun
It is not only the good guys who help win wars. After the humiliating defeat of the Anglo-French forces in May 1940, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill decided to change tactics.
The Special Operations Directorate is created in London, designed to fight the Nazis by all possible means, including «dirty» methods. Blackmail, torture, bribery and murder – these are the very ungentlemanly methods used by the task force, which brazenly operates behind enemy lines.
Guy Ritchie’s upcoming film is the director’s first experience in a war movie. In this project Ritchie also acted as a screenwriter, and the drama was based on the book by Damien Lewis «The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: How Churchill’s Secret Warriors Set Europe Ablaze and Gave Birth to Modern Black Ops».
Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant
- Rating IMDB – 8.0
- Genre: Action, thriller
- UK, Spain production / 2023
- Budget: $55 000 000
- Worldwide gross: $12 425 485
- Directed by Guy Ritchie
- Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Dar Salim, Sean Sagar, Jason Wong, Christian Ochoa, Bobby Schofield, Emily Beacham, Johnny Lee Miller, Alexander Ludwig
After twenty years of military presence, the Americans withdrew their troops from war-torn Afghanistan. Thousands of Afghans working for the U.S. were thrown to the mercy of the insurgents. Among them was the family of mechanic Ahmed, who had served as an interpreter for the Americans.
But while the U.S. government has forgotten the former ally, Sergeant John Kinley remembers him. After one unsuccessful patrol, the Afghan dragged the badly wounded Kinley to the rear for three weeks. Now the sergeant would have a chance to repay a former comrade-in-arms for his kindness.
Guy Ritchie’s new film premiered in the United States on April 21, 2023.
Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre
- Rating IMDB – 6.3
- Genre: Action movie, comedy
- UK, USA production / 2022
- Budget: $50 000 000
- Worldwide gross: $37 640 082
- Directed by Guy Ritchie
- Cast: Jason Statham, Aubrey Plaza, Josh Hartnett, Cary Elwes, Bugsy Malone, Hugh Grant, Eddie Marsan, Peter Ferdinando, Nicholas Facey, Lourdes Faberes
Unscrupulous arms baron Greg Simmonds gets his hands on the development of a top-secret weapon that could destabilize the world. The British government assigns Orson Fortune, a high-class spy, to stop the dangerous deal. To get close to Simmonds, Fortune uses the famous actor Danny Francesco, of whom the promiscuous thief is a fan.
In this project, as in others, director Guy Ritchie did not go along with modern Western trends with their traditional LGBT agenda. Neither gays, nor lesbians, let alone transsexuals or persons of undetermined gender, were seen in the comedy action film.
Wrath of Man
- Rating IMDB – 7.1
- Genre: Action movie, thriller
- UK, USA production / 2021
- Budget: $40 000 000
- Worldwide gross: $103 966 489
- Directed by Guy Ritchie
- Cast: Jason Statham, Holt McCallany, Jeffrey Donovan, Josh Hartnett, Las Alonso, Alex Furness, Raul Castillo, Deobia Oparei, Scott Eastwood, Neve Algar
Working as a money collector in Los Angeles is quite a challenge. The cars carrying the money are constantly attacked by criminals, and the death of a collector is not such a rare occurrence.
And now a new employee appears in the collection company Fortico – a stern and laconic Patrick Hill. At first glance, the newcomer, who goes by the call sign «H», is not well trained professionally. But the first critical situation shows the opposite. So who is Patrick Hill really?
Guy Ritchie’s fourth film starring Statham. The director and British actor Jason Statham met on the set of Ritchie’s debut film, «Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels», and have been friends for over twenty years.
It’s one of the best films about money-grabbers.
The Gentlemen
- Rating IMDB – 7.8
- Genre: Crime, Comedy, Action
- UK, USA production / 2019
- Budget: $22 000 000
- Worldwide gross: $115 171 795
- Directed by Guy Ritchie
- Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Charlie Hunnam, Henry Golding, Hugh Grant, Michelle Dockery, Jeremy Strong, Eddie Marsan, Jason Wong, Colin Farrell, Lin Renee
One day a private detective, Fletcher, showed up on the doorstep of lawyer Raymond Smith’s house. He offered to buy from him a very impressive dossier on Smith’s boss – London drug lord Michael Pearson. The price of the issue – 20 million pounds sterling. But, unfortunately for him, Fletcher tries to put pressure on those who are not so easy to blackmail.
Guy Ritchie not only made excellent money on the fees from the rental of the action film, but also successfully used it to promote his own business. Thus, in the frames of «The Gentlemen» several times flashed the name of the director’s brewery, as well as a London pub, which Ritchie owns a couple of David Beckham.
Aladdin
- Rating IMDB – 6.9
- Genre: Musical, fantasy, melodrama, comedy, adventure, family
- USA, UK, Australia production / 2019
- Budget: $183 000 000
- Worldwide gross: $1 050 693 953
- Directed by Guy Ritchie
- Cast: Mena Massoud, Naomi Scott, Will Smith, Marwan Kenzari, Navid Negaban, Nazim Pedrad, Billy Magnussen, Jordan A. Nash, Talia Blair, Aubrey Lyn
Aladdin, a street thief from Agrabah, has fallen in love. And not just anyone, but the most beautiful girl in the world – the Sultan’s daughter, Jasmine. To win the love of the unattainable beauty, Aladdin agrees to the proposal of cunning Vizier Jafar. He must fetch the magic lamp from the cave.
Legend has it that the Djinn is imprisoned within it, and that it can grant any wish. But by the will of fate the master of the Jinn becomes not the deceitful Jafar, but Aladdin himself. How will he dispose of the three wishes and will he be able to win Jasmine’s heart?
One might think that a musical fairy tale story is atypical of Guy Ritchie’s filmography. At the same time, Aladdin is a common street hustler. And this image has always attracted the stylish British director. He couldn’t resist this time, either.
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword
- Rating IMDB – 6.7
- Genre: Fantasy, action, drama, adventure
- UK, USA, Australia production / 2017
- Budget: $175 000 000
- Worldwide gross: $148 675 066
- Directed by Guy Ritchie
- Cast: Charlie Hunnam, Astrid Berger-Frisbee, Jude Law, Djimon Hounsou, Eric Bana, Aidan Gillen, Freddie Fox, Craig McGinley, Tom Woo, Kingsley Ben-Adir
Years ago, the treacherous Vortigern treacherously massacred his brother, King Uther Pendragon, and usurped power in Camelot. Only Pendragon’s young son Arthur was able to escape the atrocity. The boy grew up in the city slums and is unaware of his lofty origins.
But one day Arthur was able to pull the legendary sword Excalibur, given to his father by the wizard Merlin, from a stone. Now Arthur must defend England, and to do so he must first reclaim the throne.
This is a loose interpretation of the legend of the legendary leader of the Britons, King Arthur. The legendary King Arthur is a collective image, based on the events of several real British leaders and commanders.
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
- Rating IMDB – 7.2
- Genre: Action, Comedy, Adventure
- USA, UK production / 2015
- Budget: $75 000 000
- Worldwide gross: $107 045 109
- Directed by Guy Ritchie
- Cast: Henry Cavill, Armie Hammer, Alicia Vikander, Elizabeth Debicki, Hugh Grant, Luca Calvani, Sylvester Groth, Jared Harris, Christian Berkel, Mischa Smith
Amazing but true. At the height of the Cold War, the CIA and the KGB decide to join forces. A deep-undercover neo-fascist group is working to create nuclear weapons. The only clue is a girl named Gabi, the daughter of a missing German nuclear scientist.
In order to find him and prevent a global catastrophe, the governments of the two countries create a special group consisting of CIA superspy Napoleon Solo and Soviet KGB officer Ilya Kuryakin.
There were no special effects used in the scene where Solo’s performer, Henry Cavill, expertly pulls the tablecloth out from under the cutlery. Cavill learned the trick from a real magician.
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
- Rating IMDB – 7.4
- Genre: Action, Adventure, Thriller, Crime, Detective
- USA, UK production / 2011
- Budget: $125 000 000
- Worldwide gross: $543 848 418
- Directed by Guy Ritchie
- Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Noomi Rapace, Jared Harris, Paul Anderson, Stephen Fry, Rachel McAdams, Kelly Reilly, Geraldine James, Eddie Marsan
For the detective Sherlock Holmes it is time to face his most serious enemy – Professor James Moriarty. The detective learns that a conference of six European countries is to assassinate the German or French ambassador.
The summit reception will take place in the Swiss Alps against the backdrop of the famous Reichenbach Falls. Holmes is sure his worst enemy Moriarty is behind it. Will Holmes be able to resist the criminal genius?
The author of Sherlock Holmes, the writer Arthur Conan Doyle, literally hated his hero. He believed that Holmes was distracting his readers from his other, serious works. So in 1893, Conan Doyle decided to kill the popular detective. The writer was forced to resurrect his brainchild by his fascination with spiritualism, which cost Conan Doyle a pretty penny.
Sherlock Holmes
- Rating IMDB – 7.6
- Genre: Action, Adventure, Thriller, Drama, Comedy, Crime, Detective
- USA, Germany, UK, Australia production / 2009
- Budget: $90 000 000
- Worldwide gross: $524 028 679
- Directed by Guy Ritchie
- Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Rachel McAdams, Mark Strong, Eddie Marsan, Robert Mallett, Geraldine James, Kelly Reilly, William Huston, Hans Matheson
For the third month the famous detective Sherlock Holmes is bored. No interesting cases are in prospect, and his faithful assistant Dr. Watson gets married and moves in with his bride.
Holmes’s gloomy thoughts are interrupted by sudden resurrection of Lord Blackwood. In this case, in the coffin, where they buried the hanged witch doctor, the body of red-headed dwarf is found. It was him that Irene Adler – the only woman Holmes cared about – had recently taken an interest in.
Perhaps one of the most famous Guy Ritchie films on our list. The British detective Sherlock Holmes has become the most famous literary character in the world. In 2017 alone, there were more than two hundred movies, TV series, and cartoons with this main character.
RocknRolla
- Rating IMDB – 7.2
- Genre: Crime, Action, Thriller
- UK, USA production / 2008
- Budget: $18 000 000
- Worldwide gross: $25 739 994
- Directed by Guy Ritchie
- Cast: Gerard Butler, Tom Wilkinson, Tandive Newton, Mark Strong, Idris Elba, Tom Hardy, Karel Rodin, Toby Kebbell, Jeremy Piven, Ludacris
In this crime thriller, trouble befalls literally all the characters. A trio of gangsters, having pulled off a not too good deal, are left with two million pounds owed to dangerous mobster Lenny Cole.
Cole himself becomes a victim of robbery. From under his nose was stolen from under the picture, which he gave the Russian oligarch Yuri Omovich for safekeeping. And Omovich suffers without a picture, because it was she who brought him luck.
One of the episodes of «RocknRollar» features the music of the band «Sector of Gas», which our musicians only learned about after the film was released.
Revolver
- Rating IMDB – 6.3
- Genre: Action, thriller, drama, crime, detective
- UK, France production / 2005
- Budget: €20 000 000
- Worldwide gross: $6 161 383
- Directed by Guy Ritchie
- Cast: Jason Statham, Ray Liotta, Vincent Pastore, Andre Benjamin, Terence Maynard, Andrew Howard, Mark Strong, Francesca Annis, Angela Lauren Smith, Elana Binish
Professional card player Jake Green was forced to work for local authority Dorothy Mack. But one of the games ended in a shootout, and all the money at stake disappeared. As a result, Jake Green was sentenced to prison in solitary confinement for a long seven years.
But the years were not in vain. Green’s roommates turned out to be two recidivists: a virtuoso chess player and an equally skillful con man. By corresponding in the margins of library books, the three managed to develop a formula for a win-win game.
The most mysterious motion picture of all Guy Ritchie’s films. The psychological drama is filled with philosophical meaning and mystical riddles. For example, the names of the main characters: Zack, Avi and Jake are a reference to the biblical heroes Isaac, Abraham and Jacob. And some film critics are convinced that Zack and Avi exist only in Green’s head.
Swept Away
- Rating IMDB – 3.6
- Genre: Melodrama, Comedy
- UK, Italy production / 2002
- Budget: $10 000 000
- Worldwide gross: $1 036 520
- Directed by Guy Ritchie
- Cast: Bruce Greenwood, Madonna, Elizabeth Banks, Michael Beatty, Jeanne Tripplehorn, David Thornton, Yorgo Voyagis, Ricardo Perna, Adriano Giannini, George Yasumi
From the very beginning of the sea voyage, a rich bitch named Amber has been a nuisance to the simple sailor Giuseppe. She constantly picks on him, and the man has to silently tolerate the abuse.
But one day, fulfilling another whim of the rich woman, the couple finds themselves on a desert island. Now Giuseppe is going to get his revenge in full. In order not to go hungry, Amber has to serve the offended man.
The comedy melodrama is a remake of the 1974 Italian motion picture «Travolti da un insolito destino nell’azzurro mare d’agosto». The role of Giuseppe in the original was played by Giancarlo Giannini, the father of Adriano Giannini in the 2002 remake.
Mean Machine
- Rating IMDB – 6.4
- Genre: Drama, comedy, crime, sports
- UK, USA production / 2001
- Budget: £2 500 000
- Worldwide gross: $7 310 206
- Directed by Barry Skolnick
- Cast: Vinnie Jones, Jason Statham, Jason Fleming, David Kelly, David Hemmings, Ralph Brown, Wes Blackwood, Robbie Gee, Joff Bell, John Forgem
The next masterpiece in Guy Ritchie’s selection, a movie about prison. Due to his stupidity, the captain of the English soccer team, Danny Meehan, nicknamed «Mean Machine», is imprisoned. In order not to get sour from the daily grind, Danny decides to assemble a soccer team from the prisoners.
And to play the new team «Mean Machine» must play against the guards. The case is complicated by the fact that the prison director himself bet a large sum on the outcome of the game in favor of the prisoners.
The role of Danny Meehan was played by former professional soccer player Vinnie Jones. He was known for his extremely violent behavior on the field, for which he earned the nickname «Axe».
Snatch
- Rating IMDB – 8.2
- Genre: Crime, Comedy, Action
- UK, USA production / 2000
- Budget: $10 000 000
- Worldwide gross: $83 557 872
- Directed by Guy Ritchie
- Cast: Jason Statham, Stephen Graham, Brad Pitt, Alan Ford, Robbie Gee, Lenny James, Ed, Dennis Farina, Rade Sherbegia, Vinnie Jones
The bandit Frankie «Four Fingers» robbed a jewelry office in Antwerp by order. His main prize was an 86-carat diamond, which must be delivered to the customer in New York. In principle, not a difficult task for a professional criminal.
But Frankie, in exchange for a free revolver, agrees to bet on underground boxing fights. Meanwhile, the presence of the diamond becomes known to virtually every criminal element in the city.
In order to discipline the actors, Guy Ritchie was forced to introduce a rigid system of fines on the set. Among them were monetary penalties for talking on the phone, being late, sleeping in the workplace, and showing discontent.
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
- Rating IMDB – 8.1
- Genre: Action, comedy, crime
- UK production / 1998
- Budget: £960 000
- Worldwide gross: $3 753 929
- Directed by Guy Ritchie
- Cast: Jason Fleming, Dexter Fletcher, Nick Moran, Jason Statham, Stephen McIntosh, Nicholas Rowe, Nick Mark, Charles Forbes, Vinnie Jones, Lenny McLean
Four young Londoners – Eddie, Fat Tom, Soap and Bacon – want to get everything out of life at once. The buddies each raise £25,000 for the big game, but they lose and are left with half a million pounds in debt.
They have only a week to repay their debt. Without thinking twice, the foursome decide to rob the local team of “nerds” who clandestinely grow select marijuana. But, as usual, things don’t go according to plan.
The debut and one of Guy Ritchie’s best films. It was also the first film for one of the leading roles – Vinnie Jones, a former professional soccer player. And on the set of Jones went straight from the police station, because he was arrested for fighting with a neighbor.
