Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre wants to be a globe-trotting spy thriller with a heart of gold, a movie that moves from a stolen device in Kyiv to a charity gala in Cannes to a Turkish villa on the coast. It mostly succeeds at being a globe-trotting spy thriller. It fails at being anything else. This is Guy Ritchie’s attempt to make a modern James Bond film without the polish, and the result is a movie that is frequently clever, occasionally funny, and almost always exhausting.
Jason Statham plays Orson Fortune, an MI6 super-spy who is hired by Nathan Jasmine to retrieve a device called “The Handle,” which has been stolen from a secret military black site in Kyiv. The device is estimated to be worth billions, and the British government is desperate to get it back before billionaire arms dealer Greg Simmonds sells it to the highest bidder. Statham is the engine of the film, a man who speaks in clipped sentences and throws furniture across rooms. He is joined by Aubrey Plaza as Sarah Fidel, a computer programmer and hacker, and Josh Hartnett as Danny Francesco, a movie star who becomes the team’s unwitting bait. Cary Elwes plays Nathan, the man who hires them all, and Hugh Grant plays Greg Simmonds, the villain who wants the device for himself.
The premise is simple enough: a team of operatives must stop a dangerous weapon from falling into the wrong hands. What follows is a series of heists, chases, and double-crosses that span multiple countries and involve a cast of characters that reads like a checklist of Ritchie’s usual suspects. The film is built on a rhythm of chaos and confusion, with everyone talking over each other and the camera moving fast enough to make you dizzy. It is a comedy, a thriller, and an adventure movie all at once, and none of those modes are given enough room to breathe.
Trailer, via STXfilms.
The Spy Who Couldn’t Keep Quiet
Orson Fortune is a man who is constantly lying. That is the joke of the film, and it is the one that works consistently. Statham plays him as a man who is so good at his job that he cannot stop doing it, even when he is supposed to be off the clock. He is a spy who cannot keep quiet, a professional who cannot resist the thrill of the moment. The film is at its best when it lets Statham do what he does best, which is to stare down a problem and solve it with a punch.
Sarah Fidel is the film’s tech expert, and Plaza plays her with a sharpness that cuts through the chaos. She is the one who copies the hard drive first, the one who discovers the secret talks about the buyer for the Handle, and the one who hacks into the Ukrainian mafia’s computers while Orson disguises the operation as a robbery. Her scenes are the clearest moments in the film, moments where the plot stops moving sideways and starts moving forward.
Danny Francesco is the film’s comic relief, and Hartnett plays him as a man who is completely out of his depth. He is a movie star who is blackmailed into helping the team distract Simmonds at his charity gala in Cannes, and he spends most of the film flailing around like a fish out of water. His scenes are the weakest in the film, and they are also the ones that keep the movie alive. Without Hartnett’s panic, the film would collapse into a grim exercise in espionage.
The Chase Through Madrid
The film’s middle section, which takes the team to Madrid in search of the courier tasked with transporting the hard drive from the Handle, is where the movie starts to lose focus. Mike, a rival of Nathan’s, seems to have been hired to retrieve the Handle as well, and the chase through the city involves a lot of running and shooting and not much clarity. The film is at its best when it is focused, and it is at its worst when it is chasing its own tail.
The sequence that stands out is the infiltration of the Ukrainian mafia house, where Orson and JJ work to track down one of Simmonds’ moles within the Turkish government. The scene is tense and well-choreographed, and it gives the film a sense of danger that it had been missing. It is a reminder that Ritchie knows how to build a set piece, even if he does not know how to pace a story.
The Turkish Villa on the Coast
The final stretch of the film, which takes the team to Turkey for the exchange of the Handle, is where the movie tries to wrap everything up. The device is revealed to be an advanced AI developed by the British government, capable of being programmed to defeat any security system in the world. The revelation is meant to raise the stakes, but it feels like a late addition rather than a natural part of the story.
The scenes between Simmonds and Danny, where Simmonds shows Danny his memorabilia while Orson and JJ work to track down the mole, are the closest the film comes to a genuine emotional beat. They are played with a warmth that the rest of the film rarely achieves, and they suggest a director who knows how to handle actors even when he does not know how to handle a plot.
The Cast That Carries the Chaos
The cast is the film’s greatest strength. Statham is a force of nature, and Plaza is a revelation. Hartnett is less successful, but his panic is a kind of performance in itself. Elwes is reliable as Nathan, and Grant is excellent as Simmonds, playing him as a man who is both charming and dangerous in equal measure. The supporting cast, including Bugzy Malone as JJ, Eddie Marsan as Knighton, Peter Ferdinando as Mike, Nicholas Facey as John, Lourdes Faberes as Emilia, Ian Bartholomew as Bakker, and Sam Douglas as Saul, rounds out a group of characters that feel like they belong to the same universe, even if the script does not always treat them with care.
“In this operation, everyone has a part to play.”
That tagline is the film’s motto, and it is true. Everyone does have a part to play, but not everyone gets a part that matters. Some of the cast are given a few lines and a few scenes, and then they disappear. It is a shame, because the talent is there. The film just does not know what to do with it.
The Soundtrack That Never Stops
The film’s music is a mix of electronic beats and orchestral swells, and it is designed to keep the energy up even when the plot is losing steam. It works, mostly. There are moments where the score overpowers the dialogue, and there are moments where the dialogue overpowers the score, but the film never loses its pulse. It is a movie that lives on momentum, and the music is part of that momentum.
The film is also full of references to other movies, from the charity gala to the Turkish villa. These are nods to Ritchie’s own history, and they add a layer of self-awareness to a film that is otherwise content to be a genre exercise. The film is not trying to reinvent the wheel, but it is trying to spin it faster.
The Numbers Behind the Film
| Detail | Figure |
|---|---|
| Runtime | 114 minutes |
| Release date (international) | January 4, 2023 |
| Release date (United States) | March 3 |
| Digital release (UK) | April 7 |
| Genre | Action, Comedy, Thriller, Adventure |
The film was released internationally on January 4, 2023, and it arrived in the United States on March 3. It was released digitally on Amazon Prime Video in the United Kingdom on April 7. The film has a runtime of 114 minutes, which is a decent length for a movie of this type, though it sometimes feels longer than it is. The film is rated for its violence, its language, and its adult themes, and it is a movie that knows what it is and does not pretend to be anything else.
The Verdict on Ritchie’s Spy Game
Guy Ritchie has made a career out of making films that are visually bold and narratively messy. Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre is a perfect example of that approach. It is a film that is full of ideas, but it is a film that is also full of holes. The action sequences are well-choreographed, the jokes land more often than they miss, and the performances are uniformly strong. But the plot is a mess, and the film’s refusal to slow down means that it never gives you time to catch your breath.
The film is at its best when it is focused, and it is at its worst when it is chasing its own tail. The middle section drags, and the final act rushes to a conclusion that feels rushed. The film is a mixed bag, and it is a mixed bag that is mostly entertaining.
It is a film that deserves credit for ambition, even if that ambition is not always rewarded. Ritchie is a director who is not afraid to take risks, and Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre is a film that is willing to be loud, fast, and chaotic. It is a film that is not for everyone, but it is a film that knows what it is. It is a spy thriller, a comedy, and an adventure movie, and it wears all three hats with confidence.
The film is a good time, but it is not a great one. It is a movie that is worth seeing, but it is a movie that is not worth praising. It is a film that will be forgotten as soon as the credits roll, and it is a film that will be remembered only for its moments, not for its whole.
Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre is a film that is better than its reputation, but worse than its ambitions. It is a film that is worth seeing for the performances, the action, and the occasional laugh, but it is a film that is not worth praising. It is a film that is a product of its era, a film that is a reflection of its director, and a film that is a reminder that not all ambitious films are good ones.
The film earns a score of 5.1 out of 10.
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