Friday 6 October 2023

Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre (Guy Ritchie, 2023)


Guy Ritchie continues to plough his own furrow amongst British filmmakers who largely eschew big-budget action comedies and no amount of criticism will make him change the formula. So a team of spies, led by Jason Statham, jetset around using tech, explosives and old-fashioned kicks to the head to dupe billionaire arms dealer Greg Simmonds into leading them to a supergadget stolen by Ukrainian gangsters. Cue the standard non-stop chases and fights, with a few touches of relief provided by the turns of Hugh Grant as Simmonds reeling out pontific pronouncements on the real nature of the world in a Cockneyish accent, Statham with his trademark laconic asides and Josh Hartnett as a gormless Hollywood superstar roped in to help with the 'ruse', which is hardly an ingenious one, but then you wouldn't have expected much more from Ritchie. Harmless fun, but a bit more ambition wouldn't go amiss, though.

5/10

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