By now, you know what to expect when you’re seeing a Guy Ritchie movie. He seems to have a technique that is basically putting a lot of stuff in your face with a lot of British blokes who drop the F-bomb as if it’s punctuation. The trend catapulted him in the late 1990s/early 2000s when everyone was trying to go for the same techniques that made Quentin Tarantino a star. In Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, a character who has been sitting around in the background most of the movie just stands up and goes full Rambo on some wankers with a huge machine gun. Why? Why the fuck not?!
He’s had a lot of highs and lows. And the less we say about that Madonna movie, the better. Even the live-action Aladdin is a far better movie. And hopefully, he made some big bucks on the backend. In the last few years, he had some critical acclaim with what works best. Movies like The Gentlemen and Wrath of Man were like a return to his earlier form but with the experience and expertise for a trained director. Unfotunately, his latest movie Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre feels like it’s someone trying to be like Guy Ritchie.
It’s about a team of operatives, Orson Fortune (Jason Statham doing an impersonation of Jason Statham), Sarah Fidel (Aubrey Plaza doing an impersonation of Aubrey Plaza) and Nathan (Cary Elwes, doing an impersonation of, yes, Cary Elwes) trying to get a stolen high-tech device (cough-MacGuffin-cough) from the hands of an arms dealer, Greg Simmonds (Hugh Grant who’s worked better playing sleazy jerks as he’s gotten older). There’s also a high-powered celebrity, Danny Fransceci (Josh Hartnett horribly overacting thinking it’s humor) who Greg is a big fan up that the operatives get involved in their scheme.
There’s a lot of exotic locations Cannes, Morocco, Madrid, which we know because the title cards keep telling us. But they bounce around so much from each destination, it’s likely a generic location stood in for all of them and there were just establishing shots. The movie had a reported budget of $50 million, for something in this day and age that is peanuts, so the likelihood they had a film crew bouncing around to all these exotic locations is highly unlikely.
That means there’s usually scenes of people inside buildings or outside with generic backdrops and not many extras around. Basically, a movie made for Netflix. Orson is supposed to be an eccentric person but he doesn’t seem that way. The Meg and Crank might have been silly movies but at least Statham had some fun in the roles. We’ve seen this type of character before and better in his role. And Plaza seems to do her usual thing. After her wonderful turn in Emily the Criminal, you’d think she wouldn’t do these types of roles.
Reportedly the movie was filmed over two years ago and sat a year on the shelf before being released earlier this past Spring. It made only about $38 million worldwide and received mixed reviews from critics. It was reportedly delayed because Greg’s henchman are Ukranian and they didn’t want to release it during the Russo-Ukranian War early days. But I think they should have taken it as a sign and just cut their losses.
The action sequences don’t have much excitement to them. Since it’s an action comedy with a lighter tone, you know none of the main characters face much of a risk. And that’s the problem. There are no risks to get involved in the characters. It’s kinda like Ritchie’s version of The A-Team but there’s no fortune this plan came together.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 