Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre, 2023.
Directed by Guy Ritchie.
Starring Jason Statham, Aubrey Plaza, Josh Hartnett, Hugh Grant, Cary Elwes, Bugzy Malone, and Eddie Marsan.
SYNOPSIS:
Special agent Orson Fortune and his team of operatives recruit one of Hollywood’s biggest movie stars to help them on an undercover mission when the sale of a deadly new weapons technology threatens to disrupt the world order.
After sitting on the studio shelf for more than a year past its original release date – enough that director Guy Ritchie has had ample time to shoot his next movie – Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre limps rather unceremoniously into North American cinemas this week, ahead of a head-scratchingly inauspicious UK streaming bow next month.
Much as a Ritchie-helmed, Jason Statham-starring spy film might sound like a slam dunk prospect, the duo’s latest collaboration was beset by a chronic case of poor timing; if online scuttlebutt is to be believed, the picture sat in post-production limbo for so long due to the narrative involving Ukrainian mobsters.
Yet on its own terms, Operation Fortune is another reliably well-oiled effort from a filmmaker who previously proved his spy caper chops with the cult fave The Man from U.N.C.L.E. If the filmmaker’s second time up to the genre bat isn’t quite as persuasive, this is nevertheless a movie that cannily appreciates its primary appeal; that splendid ensemble cast.
Indeed, as a piece of narrative spy-craft this isn’t much to write about; a mostly typical hunt for the sort of whatever tech MacGuffin we’re used to hearing about for 20 seconds in every Fast and the Furious movie. That the trinket in question is an AI with the capability of defeating every security system known to man brings the pic some added topicality, yet only barely.
The one eccentric twist to the genre formula that really works, however, is that super-spy Orson Fortune (Jason Statham) is forced to team up with movie star Danny Francesco (Josh Hartnett), the latter going undercover to infiltrate the inner-circle of billionaire arms dealer Greg Simmonds (Hugh Grant), who happens to be Francesco’s biggest fan. Yet while Fortune and fellow spook Sarah Fidel (Aubrey Plaza) are conscientious professionals – near enough, anyway – Francesco finds himself being legitimately seduced by Simmonds, as threatens to derail the entire op.
While Operation Fortune lacks the cheeky, steadfast personality of Ritchie’s finest films and you’ll find none of his spiciest dialogue here – there’s certainly nothing as memorably quotable as in The Gentlemen – it benefits considerably from its breezy tone, fast pace, and again, the commitment of its cast. The players rip through the too-cool-for-school dialogue with a rat-a-tat machine-gun efficiency as is to be expected from any Ritchie joint, ensuring it never sticks around in any one place long enough to feel tired, even with a slightly over-egged 114-minute runtime.
Jason Statham could play this sort of steely straight-man role in his sleep and does it well once again, serving as a stark contrast to the more effervescent characters among the rest of the ensemble. Aubrey Plaza, a most curious and unexpected choice for a Ritchie movie, is clearly having a blast as the regularly exasperated Sarah. Rather than recycle her popular sardonic shtick, Plaza does something a little different here; she brings a dry wit to the table which bristles quite terrifically against Statham, Hartnett, and Grant. And who among us won’t love seeing her fire a gun?
It’s also great to see Josh Hartnett in a “big movie” again, this his second collaboration with Ritchie following the recent Wrath of Man. The irony of casting Hartnett, an actor who famously shunned the Hollywood A-list and fell off the map because of it, as a mega-star actor speaks for itself, yet he’s still suavely charming enough to suggest that it’s our collective loss he’s been on the mainstream bench for so long. Yet quite unsurprisingly, the big show-stealer is Hugh Grant, who while more-or-less giving the same riotous, ineffably camp performance he gave in The Gentleman, gets all the best lines as the maniacal arms dealer impossibly infatuated with his new movie star pal.
It’s simply good fun to see these skilled actors playing around together in an undemanding sandbox that knows they’re the primary attraction – not the boilerplate storytelling nor even the occasionally crackling action. It’s a package that should entertain most of Ritchie’s fans, even if it’s hardly the filmmaker at his most inspired and high-energy, and contains more than a few bizarre editing choices.
While hardly up there with Ritchie’s sharpest romps, Operation Fortune still delivers more than enough witty repartee and slickly efficient action to satisfy.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Shaun Munro – Follow me on Twitter for more film rambling.
