Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre

MovieGuys 3/21/2023 8:23:21 PM 8.4

In spite of a rather convoluted plot, fall flat comedy and a very minor dash of woke nonsense, I mostly liked Operation Fortune: Ruse De Guerre. Don't let the dash of French pretension in the title fool you, there's nothing remotely clever or sophisticated, about this flick. At heart, this is stripped down, nuts and bolts, action fare. Its pacing is decent and it has enough going on, exposition wise, to keep the viewer entertained. Exotic locations, gun fights, fist fights, car chases, pyrotechnics, it has it all, in abundance. Acting is generally reasonable. Hugh Grant does a great Michael Caine(??) impression. In summary, diverting, simple action fare, with a little unconvincing window dressing, in the form of tired comedy and a nod to a more sophisticated story line, that never arrives. Still worth a look, if taken on its true merits, as opposed to those it aspires to.

CinemaSerf 4/14/2023 1:29:19 PM 8.4

I was quite disappointed that despite months of cinema trailers, this went straight to the television. Why? Well I reckon that's because if I had seen it on a big screen I would have struggled my way through it in one go. As it is, I've taken about three days to get to the end of this stylish looking but really insubstantial crime caper. The story centres around the dodgy antics of "Greg" (Hugh Grant) who is looking to facilitate a $10 billion arms deal that just about nobody wants to happen. It falls to "Orson" (Jason Statham) and his team of crack operatives to come up with a plan to thwart the deal and apprehend the bidders! The only chink in the armour of our "Greg" is his idolisation of the American film star "Danny" (Josh Hartnett) and so they recruit him to come and partake in a bit of real life fan-doration (obviously without explaining just quite what is going on, or how perilous it might be) and off they travel to beautiful Antalya in Turkey where they must use all their guile, wit and technical savvy - largely down to "Sarah" (Aubrey Plaza) - before someone smells a rat. The problem here is that the story is just all too old hat. We've seen it all once too often and so when we have to rely on the characterisations to enliven the thing we are presented with an overly hammy Grant; a Statham who really is reusing an old - and well wrinkly - skin and Plaza who is really rather a lacklustre personality on screen. The jokes are all a bit predictable, as are the 007-light action scenes, car chases and - indeed - the whole thing just lacks for any sense of originality. It's not the worst film I've seen lately, but I wonder if maybe Guy Ritchie is just spent now? Perhaps it is time for him to take a few years off and try to work on something that can capitalise on his undoubtedly creative quirkiness without offering the same old sandwich just on a different shiny plate.

The Movie Mob 3/10/2023 11:13:28 PM 8.4

**Operation Fortune had all the appearances of a movie heavily altered on the cutting room floor… and not for the better.** I’m not quite sure what happened to this movie. It had hints and moments of something much more Guy Ritchie but instead was slower-paced and confused. I almost felt like an hour of screen time was cut from the film because many characters and plot points seemed incomplete. The entire movie was disjointed. The action was mediocre. The writing was so bad. There were so many great qualities this movie had going for it. The great cast and veteran director had me excited to see this film, but what I saw felt like the studio had pulled a Justice League on this movie, hacking and slashing it into something with shades of something else potentially entertaining but leaving a mess behind.