Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre
Guy Ritchie recycles his shtick with an international spy caper starring Jason Statham, of all people.
If a title needs explaining, there may be problems ahead. Just think of some of Jason Statham’s more successful films: Snatch, The Transporter, Crank, The Meg… They may not be self-explanatory, but they are as punchy as their leading man. Nonetheless, The Stath is still on home ground here, cutting a bone-crunching swathe across some of the more picturesque pockets of the world along with his old mate Guy Ritchie. Statham plays Orson Fortune, a name you can just imagine Ritchie coming up with at the pub on a Saturday night. Orson Fortune is a hard-nosed, bullet-headed killing machine, a soldier-of-fortune in the employ of the British government, but only when the latter can afford him. His quirks are an insatiable appetite for exceedingly expensive wine and certain medical conditions, such as claustrophobia, agoraphobia and cloudophobia [sic]. Nonetheless, Westminster needs him on this occasion as he is the only man on the planet who can get the job done, because an armed robbery in Odessa – leaving twenty dead – has resulted in the theft of a cargo worth ten billion. All he has to do is find out what the cargo is, who pinched it and to whom it is being sold...
The French phrase ‘ruse de guerre’ literally translates as ‘ruse of war,’ a non-military term to describe a military strategy. It’s a cumbersome title, but then maybe it reflects the convolutions of the plot, involving no end of shadowy adversaries, governments and secret organisations, not least a gang of unsavoury Ukrainian hoodlums. But the slimiest serpent of all is a smooth-talking Cockney billionaire arms dealer called Greg Simmonds – aka ‘The Dark Angel of Merciless Death.’ The latter is played by Hugh Grant, capitalising on his new persona as an East End sleazeball, a character he previously honed for Guy Ritchie in The Gentlemen. Just as Ingmar Bergman specialised in profound, intimate psychological contemplations of the human soul, so Ritchie specialises in quick-fire laddish shoot-ups with larger-than-life geezers and even larger pots of ill-gotten gains. Here, he slips on his comfortable old shoes and delivers on a recipe that he can cook up in his sleep.
Operation Fortune was originally scheduled for release in January of last year, but was put back, reputedly, because of the Ukrainian question (Hugh Grant even mocks the Ukrainian accent). However, this could easily have been altered in post-production, suggesting that there were larger issues at play. As it is, the film re-treads very familiar ground, albeit with considerable finesse, although it’s never quite as funny or as thrilling as it thinks. It does look fabulous, though, with an array of stunning locations, from London to Morocco and Madrid, on to Burbank, Cannes, Antalya and Qatar, along with opulent villas, luxury yachts, private jets and eye-caressing hotel lobbies. If Guy and The Stath just wanted to hang out in some of the more deluxe corners of the world, recycling their customary shtick, one can see the attraction. But other than flagging up the dangers of programmable AI and egomaniacal Silicon nerds, they’ve produced little new in the espionage playbook.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Jason Statham, Aubrey Plaza, Josh Hartnett, Cary Elwes, Bugzy Malone, Peter Ferdinando, Eddie Marsan, Hugh Grant, Max Beesley, Parker Sawyers, Lourdes Faberes, Tom Rosenthal, Oliver Maltman, Ergun Kuyucu, Sam Douglas, Ayhan Eroğlu.
Dir Guy Ritchie, Pro Guy Ritchie, Ivan Atkinson and Bill Block, Screenplay Ivan Atkinson, Marn Davies and Guy Ritchie, Ph Alan Stewart, Pro Des Martyn John, Ed James Herbert, Music Christopher Benstead, Costumes Tina Kalivas, Sound Jimmy Boyle, Dialect coach Liam French Robinson.
Miramax/STXfilms/Toff Guy Films-Amazon Media.
113 mins. UK/USA/Turkey/China. 2022. US Rel: 3 March 2023. UK Rel: 7 April 2023. Available on Amazon Prime. Cert. 15.
