Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant
Blu-Ray Reviews | Jun 26th, 2023
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Dar Salim, Antony Starr, Alexander Ludwig, Sean Sagar Bobby Schofield Emily Beecham Jonny Lee Miller
Written By: Guy Ritchie, Ivan Atkinson, Marn Davies
Directed By: Guy Ritchie
Studio: MGM
Buy On Amazon.com
The latest Guy Ritchie movie doesn’t feel much like a Guy Ritchie movie really. It’s an action thriller without the huge ensemble cast, banging soundtrack, and all the flash and flair that he tends to do. It’s a simplistic type of military movie but it ends up being one of his better movies in recent memory.
The movie takes place in 2018 and centers on John Kinley (Jake Gyllenhaal), a U.S. Army special operations sergeant, and Ahmed (Dar Salim), his Afghan interpreter, fighting the Taliban. When all hell breaks loose against the Taliban, John and Ahmed bond together to stay alive and see their families another day.
I guess Guy Ritchie is trying to keep his name to all movies or he wanted to separate himself from other movies called that? Unlike other military movies, this one was a little different as it focused mainly on 2 people instead of an entire unit. While you see a lot of other characters, you don’t spend as much time with them as the characters portrayed by Jake Gyllenhaal and Dar Salim. Dar Salim was the star of the movie for me in a lot of ways. He literally carried Jake throughout the movie. I thought the aspect of knowing who was in John Kinley’s unit was a bit useless since all of that moved too quickly to even know who was who. Before you know it, the story focuses on John and Ahmed going forward anyway. I think if we got to spend more time with that group, it would have been more effective in the storytelling.
What I liked about the story was the parts after John’s mission. While that’s not a new concept in war dramas, I liked the interpreter’s angle of the story this time. It’s assumed those that help out US troops, just go about their day when the mission is over but that’s not the case and this movie shows that. This isn’t based on a true story but judging by all the photos of soldiers and their interpreters during the end credits, I’m sure Guy Ritchie got a lot of stories from “consultants.” The performances from Jake and Dar were strong, and it carries over into the movie and makes you care about the characters. I think some stuff should have been cut out, or re-edited to make the story flow a little bit better but I thoroughly enjoyed this one.
Sadly there’s no bonus material for this for some reason.
If you’re looking to watch an entertaining war drama, Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant is that. Strong performances from the actors and an interesting story had me glued to my seat throughout.
Features:
None
Video:
Codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Audio:
English: Dolby Atmos
English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Subtitles:
English SDH, Spanish
Bottom Line: One of Guy Ritchie’s better movies in recent memory.
Running Time: 123 mins
Rating: R
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating:
