A One Mann’s Movies review of “Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre” (2023).
Guy Ritchie. Jason Statham. You KNOW what you are going to get with “Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre”! And if this strikes positively to you, then you will probably be pleased with what you get. As a film though, I only saw this last night and I’m already struggling to remember it!
The movie is currently streaming on Amazon Prime.
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
Plot Summary:
The absurdly named Orson Fortune (Jason Statham) is a special ops contractor with a costly line in expenses. He is recruited by government bod Knighton (Eddie Marsan) to recover something stolen…. They don’t know what it is, but they know it is being put on the market for billions by shady black-market dealer Greg (Hugh Grant). But a rival team led by Fortune’s arch-rival Mike (Peter Ferdinado), is also in play.
Certification:
UK: 15; US: R. (From the BBFC: “Strong violence, language”).
Talent:
Starring: Jason Statham, Aubrey Plaza, Cary Elwes, Hugh Grant, Josh Hartnett, Bugzy Malone, Eddie Marsan, Peter Ferdinando.
Directed by: Guy Ritchie
Written by: Guy Ritchie, Ivan Atkinson & Marn Davies.
Twitter Handle: #fortunemovie.
Arm’s dealer Greg (Hugh Grant) with his right-hand woman Emelia (Lourdes Faberes). (Source: Lionsgate).
“Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre” Review:
Positives:
- If you want an undemanding, park your brain at the door, action flick, this kind of delivers. It has glossy locations, lots of fights, car chases and Aubrey Plaza as a requisite ‘Bond girl’ with brains.
- Hugh Grant, again, steals the show. Here he is in cockney mode, and has some very funny lines, delivered flawlessly. His star-struck interplay with ‘top actor’ Danny Francesco (Josh Hartnett) is particularly good. (The ‘top actor’ thing is kind of ironic given Hartnett’s recent history on IMDB!)
- Eddie Marsan. One of my favourite artists. Quiet, solid, unflashy, dependable in a supporting role.
- I thought the action score of Christopher Benstead was good and fitting for the film.
Negatives:
- The writing:
- Did this film actually get written as a coherent thing? Or did the three writers all write different segments and then they were stuck together, with a different “location” title card at the start to imply coherence? Because there are moments where we finish one action sequence and then we are somewhere else in the world, doing something else, for reasons that are completely unclear. (But, hey, its another action sequence. Suck it up arthouse-boy!)
- It’s fine to have a ‘McGuffin’ in these types of movies. But the idea of being in pursuit of something stolen that you don’t know what it is is utterly implausible. It makes British Intelligence look like a joke!
- The script makes Statham drop the F-bomb about 10 times within the first two minutes of his first scene. After that, hardly at all! It’s as if this was the first scene the writers wrote, and then forgot that f***ing swearing wasn’t a f***ing character trait that f***ing Fortune actually had.
- The plot, with Danny as a fish-out-of-water actor sent in to infiltrate a criminal mastermind, seems to be stolen shamelessly from last year’s (much better) Nick Cage feature “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent“. Hartnett even does the signature Nick Cage ‘prayer greeting’ thing with his hands at one point! (But this is presumably a coincidence, since this movie was actually made in 2022, and been on the shelf for a long time).
Summary Thoughts on “Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre”
As a ‘park-brain-at-the-door’ action thriller, this was just about watchable in my book. But it was also mentally disposable the moment you finish watching it. I would have given this a lower rating but for the presence of Hugh Grant, who steals the show. Grant really is having a late renaissance playing these types of comic villains.
As mentioned above, this was actually completed last year, and has been a while in the Amazon warehouse awaiting release. Presumably this was because of the prominent presence of Ukranian villains, which must have seemed a good idea to the writers at the time, but in 2022 was SOOOOO off-message (and frankly, still is!).
[fblike]
Trailer for “Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre”
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8Sqk1GcqxY .
