Operation Fortune: Ruse De Guerre Review
Guy Ritchie delivers a blast of a time in the theater, in this not very good, but super fun, action heist.
The criminal seizure, and anticipated sale, of a deadly weapon leaves Nathan Jasmine (Cary Elwes) tasked with locating and safely returning the goods. He leans on his lead agent, Orson Fortune (Jason Statham), JJ Davies (Bugzy Malone), and Sarah Fidel (Aubrey Plaza) - his A Team. But to get close to the man they believe is behind the plot, billionaire lord of war Greg Simmonds (Hugh Grant), they need an in. Who better to enlist than Simmonds’ favorite actor, Danny Francesco (Josh Hartnett), in the greatest role of his career.
Ritchie’s recent spate of showy, modern spy and gangster films has been a mixed bag. There have been those that softly succeeded, such as Wrath of Man, and those that were much greater tonal successes, like The Gentlemen, and even 2015’s The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Operation Fortune, while closer to U.N.C.L.E. in tone and subject matter, hews much more towards Wrath of Man than the more critically acclaimed latter two.
The issue primarily is with the plot, which makes not a lot of sense. The end goal is never really clear, and outside of the whole ‘end of the world’ thing, the stakes are almost non-existent for the main characters. It also means that the structure of the piece is less solid than something like The Gentlemen, which has that fantastic payoff in the finale because it has such a strong structure.
But there is a lot of fun to have with the movie. There’s some fun action, and some interestingly mounted Go-Pros give some scenes the classic Ritchie inventiveness. It’s also a very stylish film. The costuming, the locations, the parties - they’re all fantastically cinematic.
What makes the film sing is the cast and the dialogue. Ritchie, always adept at writing sizzling banter, delivers in spades. Statham is a lot of fun as the insanely named Orson Fortune. Plaza is the perfect foil, adroitly deconstructing and sending up genre tropes related to women in these films, while still retaining the fun, sex appeal and bad-assery of the character. Hugh Grant steals the show, in another showy, semi-villainous performance a la his role in previous Ritchie films.
At the end of the day, you’re never going to win an Oscar with this movie. You probably won’t remember it particularly well in the coming days after watching, nor will you be quoting any of the dialogue a year or two in the future. But when you’re sitting there, in the cinema, watching it? You’ll have a blast.
