Opération Fortune : Ruse de guerre

If you want some fun, light-hearted entertainment, and you enjoyed Bullet Train, then Operation Fortune is going to hit the spot.

The action is fast-paced, the characters breezy (Hugh Grant is having an utter blast) and the dialogue fun. I am going to be using "you don't have the bandwidth for that" a lot!

Statham leads a team of operatives to recover The Handle, a mysterious thing that everyone wants. But he is not the only team of agents after it, and the two teams getting in each other's way causes more problems than the international arms dealers that they are pursuing.

Throw in a narcissistic movie star and Cary Elwes (I am *so* glad that he is getting more big movie roles these days), and you have a movie that will have you grinning from start to finish.

This would be a "straight to DVD" if not for Guy Ritchie. As a Ritchie-fan i was quite disappointed walking home from the theatre. I miss the dialogue Guy Ritchie is known for. The scence of black humor we know from other Guy Ritchie movies is also missing.

Hugh Grant saves the day with his performance, but we also see terrible acting from Josh Hartnett among others. Statham is Statham, nothing more, nothing less.

Don't spend your money watching this film in theatres. In a few weeks, it will probably be available on Netflix and as a tuesday evening timekiller it's probably worth watching. Be better next time Guy, we know that you could do better.

Facing lengthy delays in release following the current war in the Ukraine, with key parts of the films plotline involving Ukrainian antagonists, Guy Ritchie's seemingly forgotten about Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre finds the colourful director back on familiar ground with an equally familiar partner in crime in the form of Jason Statham but while on paper everything here points to another The Gentleman/The Man from U. N. C. L. E like Ritchie venture, sadly Operation feels like nothing more than a pale imitation of the British filmmakers best work.

Delivering mild distractions and occasionally featuring the directional flair that made Ritchie one of the most interesting directors to establish himself in the late 90's and early 2000's, Operation is an odd effort from Ritchie who has all the tools at his disposal here to make sure this venture has the same pizazz and smarts as his newly minted cult favourite The Gentleman or his classics Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrell's but is unable to elevate Operation to anything more than a fast-moving escapade that fails to maximize its premise, locations, cast or budget allocation.

Following the escapades of Jason Statham's suavely named wine loving holiday taking Orson Fortune and his crack team of special agent operatives that includes Audrey Plaza's scene-stealing Sarah, Bugzy Malone's impeccably dressed JJ and Cary Elwes minder Nathan as the crew try and uncover what Hugh Grant's arms-dealing Greg Simmonds is up to on the black market with the team enlisting the help of Josh Hartnett's Hollywood heartthrob Danny Francesco to help out their cause, Operation is an over the top and globe-spanning action comedy that Ritchie on peak form could've turned into a crowd-pleasing and critically appreciated sleeper hit but here on finished product is likely to find his Wrath of Man follow up failing to inspire much interest in any market.

One glaring aspect of Operation's middling nature can be traced back to Operation's script that Ritchie worked on alongside Ivan Atkinson and Marn Davies, with the director's often whip-smart and often genuinely quotable snips and quips only rarely shining here in an otherwise undercooked piece of screenwriting that leaves little room for its talented actors to do much of note with their characters or their wisecracking and while Statham is typically Stathamly, outside of Plaza's off-kilter Sarah and Grant's scene chewing Simmonds, Operation fails to give us the type of memorable players we have previously found in Ritchie's best crime/action comedies.

In an age where it feels as though the big screen comedy is a dying breed, it would have been fantastic to see Operation find it's mojo in a much more notable way and while the film appears to come alive in a bigger way in its late act stages, for much of Operation's runtime you'll be hard pressed to find much worth getting excited about, a shame when you know the man behind the whole affair can often provide the type of fun and showmanship the film is too frequently lacking.

Final Say -

A watchable and mildly entertaining distraction, Operation Fortune feels like Ritchie on sleepwalking mode as the director fails to utilize all the tools at his disposal that could have easily lead to a much more memorable outing than what we get here.

2 1/2 expensive bottles of wine out of 5.

Jordan and Eddie (The Movie Guys)

'Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre' is the 5th time director Guy Ritchie has used Jason Statham in one of his films - and if it ain't broke, don't fix it! This is a pretty straight-forward spy-action-adventure, with a fair bit of comedy thrown in - closer to 'The Man From U. N. C. L. E.' than 'Wrath of Man'. I'd say I liked it better than 'The Gentlemen', but not as much as 'Snatch'. There is only minor introductions for Orson Fortune (Statham), Sarah (Plaza) and JJ (Malone) as the spy team working for Nathan (Elwes), before we're off and running.

Not sure why the "Ruse de Guerre" suffix was needed, but it translates as a cunning war trick. I assume it also helps if there are to be sequels. The trick is that the team use actor Danny Francesco (Hartnett) as bait for billionaire arms-dealer Greg Simmonds (Grant), to track a stolen weapon. Most of the plot is quite formulaic, but Statham & Ritchie know how to stage action scenes and there's plenty of exciting moments.

Hartnett plays spoiled actor well; Plaza has plenty of fun; Malone, Elwes and Statham are all solid; with Hugh Grant relishing the role, having even more fun than he did in 'The Gentlemen'. Not too long, satisfying ending, noting too new, but a nice mix of comedy and action with a good cast.

As a generic action flick I guess this is sort of ok. For the new Guy Ritchie film its super disappointing. The only stand out aspect is Hugh Grant who is excellent. The rest, from storyline, acting, action sequences, comedy are all incredibly mediocre. Statham does his most basic Statham when he can do much more given the script and direction. Aubrey is ok, i think she was supposed to be funny though and she isnt at all, that isnt her problem because she is generally awesome. The other guy, was just filler, im not sure what he was even there for. The main thing though is the story, its just nothing, it could be a Steven Seagal movie it has no twists turns or surprises.