Reel Review Roundup

Operation Fortune: Rude de guerre (M)

Directed by: Guy Ritchie

Starring: Jason Statham, Aubrey Plaza, Cary Elwes

Review by: Julian Wright

When valuable and powerful new technology is stolen, Special Agent Orson Fortune (Jason Statham) must assemble a team to track it down before it falls into the wrong hands.

Couple of hitches though – he stuck with cheeky newbie Sarah (Aubrey Plaza) because his former tech whiz Mike (Peter Ferdinando) just bailed, and they have to recruit civilian and Hollywood action star Danny Francesco (Josh Hartnett) to get close to super-fan billionaire Greg (Hugh Grant), who is involved in the sale of the technology.

Co-writer and director Guy Ritchie remains firm in his interest in delivering a super-cool action film laced with humour.

His editing choices give this film a nice little boost – going against expectation to occasionally mix up the chronology ever so slightly to add a few surprises here and there.

The story might be underwhelming but darn it if this isn’t just a whole lot of fun.

Ritchie embraces Plaza’s deadpan style of comedy, in fact, it fits so perfectly with the British humour that one wonders how she hasn’t been snapped up earlier for other British films.

And while she gets to display her usual comedic chops, she is afforded the opportunity to portray a character that she has not before – a sexy, cheeky, tech savvy lass who remains cool under immense pressure.

Hartnett on the other hand loosens up and has a ball as the nervy and not always sharpest tool in the shed, who gets roped into the mission. Though it is a shame that he gets put on the back burner in the second half of the film.

Then there is Grant, almost unrecognisable as he sheds his trademark bumbling persona completely – here his demeanor changes as he relishes the opportunity to portray the overly spray tanned billionaire Hollywood star fangirl.

And with such exciting chemistry between the entire cast, this is a film that you wouldn’t mind seeing a sequel to just to spend a bit more time with them.

There isn’t a lot of substance here, not that its core audience was really demanding any, just a cast and crew enjoying the chance to play, and for that it is worth your time and money.

This entry was posted on January 12, 2023 at 4:49 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.