Action-flick playbook cue pays off in Ritchie romp
The title is ridiculous, but it happens to be a ridiculously enjoyable movie
Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre (R, 114 mins). Streaming on Neon and Prime Video; rent from Apple, AroVision or Neon. Directed by Guy Ritchie Reviewed by Jen Shieff
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After a slow-ish first 20 minutes introducing the main characters, Operation Fortune takes off and becomes a riotous crime caper.
Jason Statham, a Guy Ritchie goto actor, is Orson Fortune, who shows his comic side as a rebellious, wineloving spy employed by Nathan Jasmine (Cary Elwes) to help retrieve something mysterious that’s been stolen by Ukrainian mobsters and is up for sale to the highest bidder.
Orson Fortune is deadpan, whipsmart, quick to draw guns and the right conclusions. He’s very likeable too.
Equally likeable is Greg Simmonds, the lecherous billionaire arms dealer bad guy, played by Hugh Grant.
After playing Fletcher in Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen, playing a scurrilous reporter who wants to sell the story of an underworld deal, Hugh Grant in Operation Fortune plays the broker for the deal. Whichever side of the fence Grant’s character is on, he steals the show.
Fortune enlists two other operatives, Sarah (Aubrey Plaza) and JJ (Mancunian rapper Bugzy Malone) to ensnare Greg to prevent the mysterious stolen item from doing something truly awful, like bringing the world to a standstill.
To aid their mission, they divert from Cote d’Azur to Los Angeles to recruit Greg’s favourite actor, Danny Francesco (Josh Hartnett), to be their invitation to Greg’s exclusive party. Greg loves a superstar.
Once on board Greg’s superyacht,
Greg and Danny start with mutual admiration and then develop a serious bromance.
None of Guy Ritchie’s films are fully separated from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, the film that convinced him to become a filmmaker when he saw it as a teenager.
Quick draws, heists and robberies, outlaws evading police, a love affair and, importantly, a bromance.
Tick all of these for both Butch Cassidy and Operation Fortune.
It’s a ridiculous title, Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre, but the film is ridiculously enjoyable, nevertheless. It’s in the same action thriller camp as The Man From U.N. C.L.E or Mission: Impossible or the Bond movies, but it enjoys itself more than they do and is more human.
Fortune and his team are action heroes, but they’re humble, and even a bit surprised at their own abilities.
There’s glamour that the characters are only too aware of themselves, and when the characters fly off to exotic locations, they find they don’t really belong there.
Aubrey Plaza’s Sarah shows the most potential to be a character in any sequel.
She’s an action hero, savvy, courageous and also very funny.
The lines she’s given, including some R-rated ones, don’t always match her hilarious body language, but overall, her character works like a charm.
Great special effects, explosions, tussles, gunfire, a classic red Ford Mustang and a chase scene.
It’s all there.
Greg’s narcissism only just eclipses Danny’s, the pair of them loving a starring role, and, if you wait for the credits to roll, you’ll enjoy the shot of Danny playing none other than Greg. Game on.
Highly recommended
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