Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre
Directed by Guy RitchieSpecial agent Orson Fortune and his team of operatives recruit one of Hollywood's biggest movie stars to help them on an undercover mission when the sale of a deadly new weapons technology threatens to disrupt the world order.
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Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre Ratings & Reviews
- Kevin WettengelMarch 15, 2025Entertaining enough. Came for Guy Ritchie, stayed for the rest.
- neuroparadox6d ago"TURNS OUT THERE'S A REASON THEY CALL HIM THE DARK ANGEL OF MERCILESS DEATH, MIKE!" --Rich Nerd #2
- Kevin WardJuly 4, 2025Lets get this out of the way first. Terrible title. Even after seeing the movie, I keep having a hard time remembering what the hell the name of this movie is. And the closest I get is Operation: Something or Other — The Rise of Gru. Essentially, this is Guy Ritchie directing a Mission: Impossible movie, at least in terms of the plot. There’s a [spoiler I guess] super duper ai decryption tool being sold to the highest bidder for purposes of world domination. There’s a top secret team tasked with recovering this item. And there’s an elaborate ruse as a part of the heist to recover this item. It feels rather generic but with the right cast and action set pieces, generic can be really fun. Regarding the cast—I love the cast. Hugh Grant is kind of boisterously cringy. Jason Statham is (well) Jason Statham. And Cary Elwes is great as well. But Aubrey Plaza is given some of the worst tech-y, hack-y, type-y, dialogue you could imagine, particularly in the first half of the movie. Her performance gets much better as it goes along, though, as she’s given more action, more humor and more outfits. For a while I was pretty disappointed in Ritchie for giving Plaza all the shit dialogue though. But regarding the action and the direction, for a Guy Ritchie film, this felt surprisingly lacking in style and flourishes. There’s a few odd editing choices that make the flow of the film feel pretty clunky. One example is, they skip over a fight sequence as it’s happening and make a kind of jarring jump forward to just after the fight is done. Then a little later in the film we flashback to see this fight, but it’s not like this giant payoff. It was just a Statham unspectacularly punching a couple guys out. Several small choices like that make this feel exactly that, unspectacular. I still recommend it if you like Guy Ritchie and/or Mission: Impossible films. It’s just not nearly as good as what you would think the marriage of those two concepts would suggest.
- 匚卂尺ㄥFebruary 1, 2025From the opening scene - in which the stride of a main character through governmental corridors is brilliantly synced to the music - to the deliciously funny scene over the credits, this is a VERY classy and entertaining production. Each character is extremely well drawn, with dialogue that could only come from them and which is given perfect life by the actors. Audrey Plaza (as Sarah Fidel) in particular has some absolutely hilarious moments, but really everyone has a cracking line or five. The plot romps along nicely, with the best pacing I've encountered in an action movie in a very long time. I've probably watched this film - or listened to the dialogue and soundtrack as I've been working - at least ten times already since I first discovered it a couple of months ago, and honestly I think this isn't just my favourite film of the year but also one of my favourite films of all time. Which was unexpected, as I'm not a big fan of previous Guy Ritchie films, even those written by the same team (although I definitely enjoyed Chris Benstead's score in a couple of previous Ritchie films I watched recently in hopes that they'd be just as good). The concept is that a team of mercenaries working for the UK government are after a mysterious stolen item of great value called "The Handle", the sale of which is being mediated by arms dealer Hugh Grant - who (as per usual) plays a MUCH better bad guy than any of the floppy-haired romantic leads the poor man was forced to play in his early career. In order to get close to Grant's character, they enlist-slash-force the help of a Hollywood star he adores (played excellently by Josh Hartnett, who seems to be making a career out of such roles). The lead merc Orson Fortune - played with perfect comedic timing by Jason Statham - has fantastic instincts as an operative but is occasionally a bit stupid. For example: near the start, he's apparently unaware that his girlfriend is cheating on him until his handler (the irresistibly charming Cary Elwes) informs him; later, he's in trouble after leaving an op via the obviously wrong exit. I really loved this because it speaks to how people who are brilliant in some areas are totally clueless in others - which, of course, is why operating as a team (including a very nice performance by Bugzy Malone) is such a great idea. There are so many great lines and quips I can't possibly list them all here, but what really appealed to me were the many hilarious interactions between or involving Orson and Sarah. I also loved that the lone female main character (there is another strong female character but she has minimal dialogue) is really assertive and funny. I still remember seeing Guy Ritchie's King Arthur movie and thinking the female characters were either cardboard cutouts or classified as uncanny; this movie is a hundred times better in that respect. I could list a dozen great lines of dialogue, but rather than spoil things I will simply encourage anyone reading this to watch the film - if it appeals, you'll be hooked in the first five minutes :-)
