Behind the generic title Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre hides a mildly entertaining spy action movie you’ve seen a thousand times before. I had no idea this is a Guy Ritchie movie as after the release of Aladdin, I pretty much wrote him off. Those who are expecting another Snatch or Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels will not like this movie. If, however, you’re expecting just another generic actioner featuring high production values and a strong cast, you will like Operation Fortune. Ritchie is still an excellent director and writer, so expect a couple of curve balls along the way.
We will be visiting beautiful locations and uncovering secret plots to take over the world. From exotic Morocco, over gorgeous Spain and dreamy France to the mystical land of Turkey. Lavish parties, stunning locations and a strong cast is sometimes all you need to make generic but still watchable spy action movie. The same goes for the characters. They were quite underdeveloped, without proper backgrounds and a sense of uniqueness. Hell, I didn’t even bother remembering their names. Jason Statham was playing the classic Jason Statham character.
And Aubrey Plaza was the usually quirky and dashing hacker girl. I think Ritchie fucked up her character the most as she was struggling to get into it. Although she did look stunning in that red dress. Luckily, Hugh Grant as Greg was a sight to behold as I think he was doing his best impression of Jim Jefferies. Or was I imagining things, please tell me in the comments below. Josh Hartnett gave another good and pitch-perfect performance as well.
So, a bunch of terrorists steal a case containing something dangerous and now they’re trying to sell it to the highest bidder. Queue a special ops team tasked with recovering the case and finding out what’s going on and you have the plot for Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre. Apart from Bond, I would also add the Mission Impossible and Jason Bourne franchises as similar movies.
Orson Fortune was on his vacation in Morrocco when his handler Nathan showed up and cut it short. You see, Nathan is putting together a crew of skilled operators in order to recover a stolen briefcase. Nobody knows what’s in the briefcase but all the bad guys want it. And that’s never a good sign. The deal is being brokered by one of the biggest arms dealers in the world and to get to him, our crew will have to get creative.
With the running time of almost two hours, I feel the editing could be better. Some scenes take too long and this messes with the pacing of the whole movie. It’s good that they kept the mystery of what’s actually going on right up until the end, keeping some semblance of the tension going. Although we already knew how this whole song and dance is going to finish. I also cannot quite understand why Ritchie and his crew struggle with humor so much. It feels so forced at times here that can’t help but wonder why they wanted it. I think that the movie would’ve worked just fine without it. Just like Wrath of Man, a much darker but also much more engaging affair.
If you think of Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre as a charming tribute to the seventies and sixties cinema, it works just fine. In that sense, it’s quite similar to Ritchie’s previous movie The Man From U.N.C.L.E.. Although this is a much messier and more lighthearted affair. As such, there’s really not that much more to talk about here. You already know what’s up and I don’t want to bore you too much. By the way, Ruse de Guerre means ruse of war in French. So, basically using trickery to outsmart your enemy.
Director: Guy Ritchie
Writers: Guy Ritchie, Ivan Atkinson, Marn Davies
Cast: Jason Statham, Aubrey Plaza, Cary Elwes, Hugh Grant, Josh Hartnett, Bugzy Malone
Fun Facts: Three main characters in the movie are called Trent, Alexander and Arnold. However, we will not learn their last names as this is a nod to footballer Trent Alexander-Arnold.
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IMDb Link: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7985704/
