''All the Queen's Men'' is a 2001 English-language

action comedy The action comedy is a film genre that applies to action films where humor plays a much more central role. While early films feature stuntwork and humor, academic Cynthia King wrote that the genre only came into its own as a mainstay of the America ...

war film War film is a film genre concerned with warfare, typically about navy, naval, air force, air, or army, land battles, with combat scenes central to the drama. It has been strongly associated with the 20th century. The fateful nature of battle s ...

directed by

Stefan Ruzowitzky Stefan Ruzowitzky is an Austrian film director and screenwriter. Early life and education Ruzowitzky was born in Vienna. He studied drama and history at the University of Vienna and started directing music videos, for example for 'N Sync, an ...

and starring Matt LeBlanc and Eddie Izzard. Made on a budget of $15 million, the film received heavily negative reviews from critics, and it earned only $23,662 in the United States.

Plot

During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

army is attempting to retrieve an

Enigma machine The Enigma machine is a cipher device developed and used in the early- to mid-20th century to protect commercial, diplomatic, and military communication. It was employed extensively by Nazi Germany during World War II, in all branches of the W ...

from

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. Having failed in previous attempts, they decide to send four men undercover to the factory that makes the devices in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. Unfortunately the factory is populated entirely by women, and they only have men to send. American O'Rourke (LeBlanc),

transvestite Tony Parker (Izzard), genius Johnno ( David Birkin), and the reluctant Archie (

James Cosmo James Ronald Gordon Copeland (born 1947), known professionally as James Cosmo, is a Scottish actor. Known for his character work, he has played supporting roles in films such as '' Highlander'' (1986), ''Braveheart'' (1995), '' Trainspotting' ...

) are sent to infiltrate the factory dressed as women. Dropped in the wrong area, the team must first try to find their bearings. Aided by Romy, a sympathiser to their cause, they find their way to the factory. They manage to retrieve the Enigma machine, against the expectations of the British army. Just before they leave Germany, they realize they were tricked—the British government already had the device, but wanted to make the Germans think they were still after it. They were specifically chosen as the team most likely to fail. Leaving Germany with an Enigma machine would, in fact, destroy the usefulness of the machine, as the Germans would know it was stolen and switch to a different code system. Archie volunteers to be captured with the machine to allow the mission to "fail". After he is captured, the team retrieves him and returns safely to England, leaving the Germans with the impression they have all the Enigma machines and the British are still desperate to obtain one.

Cast

* Matt LeBlanc as Captain Steven O'Rourke * Eddie Izzard as Lieutenant Tony Parker *

as Major Archie Hartley * Nicolette Krebitz as Romy * David Birkin as Johnno * Edward Fox as Aitken * Karl Markovics as Hauptsturmführer

Reception

The film was panned by critics, getting an approval rating of 7% on review aggregation website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

and an average rating of 3.50/10, based on 29 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "''All the Queen's Men'' never capitalizes on its gender-bending conceit, instead relying on low-hanging jokes that never elicit a chuckle."

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...

mentioned the film in his book '' Your Movie Sucks'', terming it "a perfectly good idea for a comedy, but it just plain doesn't work." Ebert also mentions the problem with the plot being about retrieving an

when "Anyone who has seen '' Enigma'', '' U-571'', or the various TV documentaries...will be aware that by the time of the movie, the British already had possession of an Enigma machine... The movie has an answer to it, but it comes so late in the film that although it makes sense technically, the damage has already been done."

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:All The Queen's Men 2001 films 2000s war comedy films German war comedy films English-language Austrian films English-language German films Films directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky Films scored by Robert Folk 2000s spy comedy films World War II spy films Films about Nazi Germany Cross-dressing in film 2001 comedy films 2000s English-language films Austrian war comedy films 2000s German films English-language war comedy films

Plot

Cast

Reception

See also

References

External links