Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre

Guy Ritchie. Jason Statham. Aubrey Plaza. Hugh Grant. Cary Elwes. This 2023 spy/caper hybrid has a lot going for it, but there’s just something OFF. Let’s start with the title. It’s so incredibly confusing and stupid. I had to look it up again just to type it into this weblog, because the words don’t fit together. It’s pure linguistic chaos. I like Jason Statham and Aubrey Plaza - both - A LOT - but it feels like they’re in different movies. Plaza’s doing a wise-cracky, American action/comedy, and Statham is waiting in vain with gritted teeth to karate kick the next mercenary off a high-rise, a moment that rarely if ever comes. The ending is strangely anticlimactic, and the foil, Hugh Grant, (spoiler alert) ends up reaping all the heroic rewards. When a movie that looks this good on paper comes out mediocre, I always assume that something went wrong behind the scenes. They ran out of money or someone got food poisoning or something. It’s not a disaster, by any means. There’s just something off. Charmingly so? Not really.