Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre — half baked

0 0 March 30, 2025 Edit this post

by Chris Riley

I'm a big fan of director Guy Ritchie and an even bigger fan of action star Jason Statham.

Put these two together and the result should be a lay down misere.

But the 2023 film Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre doesn't do it for me.

Like most of Ritchie's films it's a mix of comedy and action, sometimes both at the same time -- but I defy anyone to identify and follow the convoluted plot.

It's about spy, Orson Fortune (Jason Statham), who must retrieve a stolen AI device known as the 'The Handle' before billionaire arms dealer Greg Simmonds (Hugh Grant) can off-load it to the highest bidder.

With it the recipients could bring down the financial markets of the world.

So far so good, but about 15 minutes into the movie I realized I had no idea what was going on.

But I still kept watching for the action and comedic moments. My wife fell asleep, head back, mouth open.

This losing the plot seems to be the case with many action films these days. The Marvel franchise is a perfect example.

It's about spy, Orson Fortune (Jason Statham), who must retrieve a stolen hi-tech AI device known as the "The Handle' before billionaire arms dealer Greg Simmonds (Hugh Grant) can sell it to the highest bidder.

With it they could wreak havoc on the world's money market.

Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre was directed by Guy Ritchie, as well as being written by Ritchie, along with cohorts Ivan Atkinson, and Marn Davies.

The film stars the aforementioned Jason Statham, Aubrey Plaza, Josh Hartnett, Cary Elwes, Bugzy Malone and Hugh Grant.

It was originally going to be called Five Eyes, in reference to the real intelligence alliance of the same name.

The French military term "ruse de guerre," has two meanings:

the first is an act of military deception against one's opponent
the second emphasises acts against one's opponent by creative, clever, unorthodox means, sometimes involving force multipliers or superior knowledge

The British government hires Nathan Jasmine to retrieve The Handle, who in turn coerces Fortune to return from vacation to head up a team made up of Sarah Fidel, JJ Davies and others.

The team travels to Madrid, seeking the courier intended to transport the hard drive containing the data that makes up The Handle.

Just as they take possession of the disk it is snatched by rival Mike Hook and his team, who it appears have also been hired to retrieve The Handle.

As luck would have it, Fidel, an American and a skilled hacker, manages to copy the hard drive's contents seconds before they are forced to hand it over.

Learning that Simmonds plans to host a charity gala in Cannes, the team decides to infiltrate the event by blackmailing his favorite movie star, Danny Francesco, into helping them distract Simmonds.

There's more, but in the end it's a confusing mish-mash of plots and sub-plots and certainly not up to Richie's usually high standard.

Statham is Statham and like Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson he is always eminently watchable.

He and Ritchie have made five movies together over the years, but none has come close to the success they had with their original 1998 crime comedy Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels.

Interestingly, Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerrefollowed the equally forgettable Wrath of Man, a film that did not receive a theatrical release, but went straight to Amazon Prime.

Apparently, Ritchie rewrote the script when he came on board, but actively encouraged the cast to improvise as much as possible.

Doesn't sound like he was too interested. However, Aubrey Plaza was particularly pleased with this style of direction.

Hugh Grant is of course terrific as the laid-back super crook Simmonds and almost unrecognisable in the part.

You can catch Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre on Stan or Netflix.