OPERATION FORTUNE: RUSE DE GUERRE
****
Director: Guy Ritchie
Screenplay: Ivan Atkinson, Marn Davies and Guy Ritchie.
Principal cast:
Jason Statham
Aubrey Plaza
Hugh Grant
Josh Hartnett
Cary Elwes
Bugzy Malone
Country: USA/China/Turkey
Classification: M
Runtime: 114 mins.
Australian release date: 12 January 2023.
Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre, the latest action movie from British director Guy Ritchie, reworks familiar James Bond-style tropes with brio and wit; you won’t remember it for long after you leave the cinema but you’ll have a lot of fun while you’re there. The script’s not as clever as The Gentlemen but it’s got all the death and destruction of Wrath of Man, so it should keep Ritchie’s fans happy. Plus, he’s teamed up with Jason Statham once again and in this outing the hard man is playing a super-spy who goes by the awesome name of Orson Fortune, so you know with a moniker like that there’s bound to be a few laughs along the way. Other Ritchie favourites returning in the cast are Hugh Grant (who just about steals the movie – he’s hilarious), Bugzy Malone and Josh Hartnett; they are joined by newcomers Cary Elwes and comedian Aubrey Plaza.
When a Ukrainian criminal gang steals a device containing highly valuable information, Fortune’s spymaster (Elwes) recruits him to put together a team to retrieve it. No-one knows for sure what it contains but they know it’s worth 10 billion dollars and is to be sold to the highest bidder in a deal brokered by international arms dealer Greg Simmonds (Grant). Fortune hires cyber-tech wiz Sarah Fidel (Plaza) and communications expert J. J. Davies (Malone), whose also adept with weapons, to assist him with the mission. Neither have worked with Fortune before, so the trio has to learn how to get along with each other, providing an opportunity for some classic Ritchie repartee, especially between Fortune and Fidel. In order to get close to Simmonds, they blackmail the arms dealer’s favourite film star, Danny Francesco (Hartnett), into joining them at a charity fundraiser in Cannes. This ruse de guerre subterfuge gets them an invitation to spend the weekend with Simmonds in his Turkish villa and provides them with the means to get hold of the stolen device. Naturally, though, there is another group of ruthless villains after the same thing.
Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre treats its spy-thriller elements lightly, which is a good thing – it could have looked a bit silly given the surfeit of villainous characters. Producer and co-screenwriter Ivan Atkinson explains that, “We wanted to do something different with the genre. Most spy films fall into one or two categories: they’re either a spoof or they take themselves very seriously. We wanted to find a middle ground.” To that end, Statham delivers his lines with a straight face while Plaza, Harnett and Grant have fun with theirs. Of course, you can’t make a movie of this type without a variety of exotic locations, lots of gadgets and hi-tech trickery, fast cars, luxury motor yachts and a Bond-ian musical score, and Operation Fortune delivers all these in spades. Plus, action, lots and lots of action – the body count is high although there is little blood, hence the film’s M classification.
Josh Hartnett, talking about Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre, summarised the film well when he said, “There’s a certain way of using the camera and editing that transforms what could have been a standard kind of action scene into something that’s, well, signature Guy Ritchie. Audiences can expect nothing less than a big Guy Ritchie movie.”
Screenplay: Ivan Atkinson, Marn Davies and Guy Ritchie.
Principal cast:
Jason Statham
Aubrey Plaza
Hugh Grant
Josh Hartnett
Cary Elwes
Bugzy Malone
Country: USA/China/Turkey
Classification: M
Runtime: 114 mins.
Australian release date: 12 January 2023.
Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre, the latest action movie from British director Guy Ritchie, reworks familiar James Bond-style tropes with brio and wit; you won’t remember it for long after you leave the cinema but you’ll have a lot of fun while you’re there. The script’s not as clever as The Gentlemen but it’s got all the death and destruction of Wrath of Man, so it should keep Ritchie’s fans happy. Plus, he’s teamed up with Jason Statham once again and in this outing the hard man is playing a super-spy who goes by the awesome name of Orson Fortune, so you know with a moniker like that there’s bound to be a few laughs along the way. Other Ritchie favourites returning in the cast are Hugh Grant (who just about steals the movie – he’s hilarious), Bugzy Malone and Josh Hartnett; they are joined by newcomers Cary Elwes and comedian Aubrey Plaza.
When a Ukrainian criminal gang steals a device containing highly valuable information, Fortune’s spymaster (Elwes) recruits him to put together a team to retrieve it. No-one knows for sure what it contains but they know it’s worth 10 billion dollars and is to be sold to the highest bidder in a deal brokered by international arms dealer Greg Simmonds (Grant). Fortune hires cyber-tech wiz Sarah Fidel (Plaza) and communications expert J. J. Davies (Malone), whose also adept with weapons, to assist him with the mission. Neither have worked with Fortune before, so the trio has to learn how to get along with each other, providing an opportunity for some classic Ritchie repartee, especially between Fortune and Fidel. In order to get close to Simmonds, they blackmail the arms dealer’s favourite film star, Danny Francesco (Hartnett), into joining them at a charity fundraiser in Cannes. This ruse de guerre subterfuge gets them an invitation to spend the weekend with Simmonds in his Turkish villa and provides them with the means to get hold of the stolen device. Naturally, though, there is another group of ruthless villains after the same thing.
Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre treats its spy-thriller elements lightly, which is a good thing – it could have looked a bit silly given the surfeit of villainous characters. Producer and co-screenwriter Ivan Atkinson explains that, “We wanted to do something different with the genre. Most spy films fall into one or two categories: they’re either a spoof or they take themselves very seriously. We wanted to find a middle ground.” To that end, Statham delivers his lines with a straight face while Plaza, Harnett and Grant have fun with theirs. Of course, you can’t make a movie of this type without a variety of exotic locations, lots of gadgets and hi-tech trickery, fast cars, luxury motor yachts and a Bond-ian musical score, and Operation Fortune delivers all these in spades. Plus, action, lots and lots of action – the body count is high although there is little blood, hence the film’s M classification.
Josh Hartnett, talking about Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre, summarised the film well when he said, “There’s a certain way of using the camera and editing that transforms what could have been a standard kind of action scene into something that’s, well, signature Guy Ritchie. Audiences can expect nothing less than a big Guy Ritchie movie.”