BLOOD BROTHERS (GUY RITCHIE'S THE COVENANT)

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Okay, you might need to take a seat for this.

Guy Ritchie has actually made a half decent film.

Yeah, I know. Even I can't believe it.

It's not a stone cold classic.

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It's far from perfect.

However his latest work for Amazon Prime is several furlongs ahead of the usual Mockney guff that he trots out.

A war movie about deeds of derring do involving US troops in Afghanistan, 'Guy Ritchie's The Covenant' stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Special Operations Master Sergeant John Kinley whose interpreter is killed during a Taliban bomb attack on his platoon.

Set in 2018, Kinley hires Dar Salim's interpreter Ahmed Abdullah as his replacement.

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It soon becomes clear that Ahmed has more than just decent language skills.

He quickly establishes himself as an invaluable member of the platoon which, in typical Ritchie fashion, is full of soldiers with nicknames like Sean Sagar's Charlie 'Jizzy' Crow, Jason Wong's Joshua 'JJ' Jung and Rhys Yates' Tom 'Tom Cat' Hancock.

Very much a team player, Ahmed shoots and stabs the enemy any time they threaten Kinley and his troops.

He tends to the wounded and is very good at interpreting non verbal signs that the platoon might be in danger.

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Even with those particular set of skills, he's unable to prevent his comrades from getting involved in a really hairy situation with the Taliban which results in a bloodbath - wiping out the bulk of his brothers in arms.

Kinley and Ahmed are lucky enough, though, to escape but they have to undertake a perilous trek through enemy controlled territory.

The journey will test their resilience to the full and also their survival instincts.

It will also require immense courage and bond them together.

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Co-written by Ritchie, Ivan Atkinson and Marn Davies, 'Guy Ritchie's The Covenant' is a modern day Audie Murphy style story.

It's not terribly sophisticated and it doesn't really stray that far into the territory of conflicted, disillusioned soldiers like the Vietnam movies of Michael Cimmino, Brian de Palma, Francis Coppola and Oliver Stone.

The film doesn't completely shy away, though, from the fallout over the US's involvement and eventual messy withdrawal from Afghanistan.

But it only scratches the surface of that theme.

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As Kinley comes to appreciate the impact Ahmed has had on him, it feels like Ritchie is really having to stretch himself hard in those sections of the film that veer into the personal.

And while he certainly seems more at home when all guns are blazing, the fact that he is willing to stretch himself isn't a bad thing.

It's not quite as polished as you would like.

The tonal shifts of the movie are at times clunky and uneven.

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However it's not far off from where Ritchie ought to be.

Action fans will certainly feel sated by the gun battles that rage throughout the film.

However the two leads also give 'Guy Ritchie's The Covenant' more heft.

Gyllenhaal has always been an intelligent actor and he delivers an absorbing performance as a soldier whose bond with his interpreter becomes so deep he feels he feels indebted.

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Salim is in every aspect a solid match for him, playing an honourable family man who is prepared to take huge risks against fellow countrymen whose extremism he abhors.

The duo's performances eclipse everyone else in the cast, although Emily Beecham as Kinley's wife Caroline, Jonny Lee Miller as Colonel Vokes and Antony Starr as a private military contractor, Eddie Parker give decent accounts of themselves in thinly written roles.

'Guy Ritchie's The Covenant' mostly succeeds because it doesn't feel like your typical Ritchie film.

There's not the same kind of swagger and fake patter.

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The direction is unfussy and unusually not overcooked.

It's all a bit 'To Hell and Back,' 'Zero Hawk Down,' Behind Enemy Lines' and 'Where Eagles Dare'.

It is certainly not as accomplished as 'Apocalypse Now,' 'The Deer Hunter,' 'Platoon,' 'The Hurt Locker' or 'American Sniper'.

But that's okay.

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In case you're wondering, the reason why Ritchie's name is in the title is to avoid it being confused with the 2006 horror film 'The Covenant'.

But that's by the by.

This movie shows how Ritchie might prosper by avoiding all the fake Cockney geezer nonsense and jettisoning his fixation with becoming a pound shop Tarantino.

If he focuses on the basics and ditches the bravado, he might yet prove to be a sturdy action director like Tony Scott.

('Guy Ritchie's The Covenant' was released in US cinemas on April 21, 2023 and for streaming on Amazon Prime on June 2, 2023)