OPERATION FORTUNE: RUSE DE GUERRE: Isn’t Quite Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid

Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre is not a movie we need per se, but for those who are more than ho-hum enthusiasts of Guy Ritchie, it might have been just enough for them. There’s a sense that it is a throwback to a bygone generation, and it’s not a period piece like The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

Although I don’t wish to imply Guy Ritchie and Quentin Tarantino have similar styles — they’ve remained in demand for their unique visions — both initially came to prominence in the ’90s. Somehow they feel inextricably linked to a certain generation of filmmakers. At least in Ritchie‘s case, out of the more recent additions to his catalog, I’ve appreciated the retro ones the most.

Jumps in time give more license for the flashy British colonial globetrotting aesthetic we’ve all grown up with thanks to Ian Fleming‘s Bond. Watching Operation Fortune isn’t bad; it’s just not all that different from what we’ve seen umpteen times before. And it’s hard to attribute these choices to some deep-seated sense of admiration in its predecessors.

I also respect Rian Johnson as a writer-director, but it often feels like he’s constantly trying to subvert audience expectations with a movie like Glass Onion. Certainly, this is a worthwhile endeavor, but then I come out on the other side feeling as if he hasn’t delivered what I came into the theater wanting. There’s an amount of obvious, albeit clever genre deconstruction going on in front of us. Still, I feel slightly cheated.

In Ritchie‘s film, it’s almost the complete opposite; he gives us pretty much exactly what we expect from the genre. Jason Statham is always durable and ready to stand up and exert himself as a gritty, laconic action hero. This time he’s named Orson Fortune. Cary Elwes is pleasurable as the kind of dry-witted British go-between we come to expect from our mission movies. He must assemble the team and force Fortune into his latest assignment, while also tussling with him every waking minute.

The Supporting Cast

I hesitate to sound too negative because Aubrey Plaza has more than shown her acting chops in something as recent as Emily the Criminal. However, here she is called upon to perform this weird fusion of the wunderkind tech genius crossed with her trademark sly sense of humor. I could see it being a fresh addition to the spy genre, but it feels like her scenes never manage a totally lithe blending of the two. One questions the script.

Josh Hartnett is another holdover from Ritchie‘s previous film Wrath of Man. While it’s not quite Get Shorty, his prima donna actor, Danny Francesco, is a man with no in-field training, who gets life-and-death scenarios foisted upon him. It plays as an amusing if mostly underused trope.

By far, Operation Fortune‘s most valuable asset is Hugh Grant, who looks like he’s having immeasurable fun trying on a c*ckney accent and playing a truly cruddy human being in Greg Simmonds. He’s a self-serving misogynist living on a massive estate when he’s not holding court on his yacht. His self-declared charity work for orphans covers up more clandestine activities, and he’s not afraid to share what he fancies most in life…

He loves being rich, he loves his favorite actor Danny Francesco, and he loves wooing other people’s ladies, not necessarily in that order. Although he is a major scuzzball, I’d hesitate to call him a villain. And if he is, then he has more panache than just about anyone in the movie.

An Ode to Burt, Butch, and Sundance

Operation Fortune simultaneously features an unwitting homage to the late, great Burt Bacharach in one of the year’s strangest musical spots thusfar. We listen to a rendition of “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head” during a robbery complete with a meta appearance from Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid. It’s a very brazen addition because this is not the kind of movie you want to try and stack up against.

Still, I wouldn’t want to dissuade any Ritchie aficionados from seeing the picture. That is their prerogative. Butch Cassidy is for me.  It was a film that understood how to play as comedy — comedy not without its share of sobering humanity — and that’s part of what made it hilarious. 

Now in the darker more ambiguous contemporary playing field of Tom Cruise’s Mission Impossible or even Daniel Craig‘s James Bond, you watch something like Operation Fortune, and you wonder why we should care about these characters. It feels almost passé. It’s fine to have a rip-roaring good time, and maybe I expect too much from what we’re given. Still, it struggles to strike an agreeable balance between the levity and the more pulse-pounding, serious work at hand.

Conclusion: Operation Fortune: Ruse De Guerre

Mentioning Tarantino and Ritchie in the same breath also brought something else to mind. Bruce Lee famously got pummelled in Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, and here Asians are either henchwomen or handy punching bags for Statham. In fact, most of the guys who get beaten up or otherwise butchered are hulking “ethnic” types with accents. Bugzy Malone gets to play Statham’s cool-headed sharpshooter with little purpose aside from making sure our hero lives to save the day.  It all suggests a lack of imagination or at least an imagination stuck in the past.

I almost hold less umbrage with Lee getting thrown into a car, compared to the fact that his depiction is really the only representation of an Asian in Once Upon a Time to my knowledge. In Operation Fortune, we get a few more yakuza types in a cringe-worthy movie set cameo to round things out, but it’s not much better. With the relatively creative casting of Aubrey Plaza or even Hugh Grant, I wonder what the rest of the movie would look like with a few more out-of-the-box decisions.

Ritchie is probably at his best in several scenes where time is manipulated, and it feels like our eyes are playing tricks on us. Either because he conveniently cuts away or inserts salient details only when he thinks we need them. There’s a stylized flourish to it all while also having a bearing on the drama in punctuated moments.

Operation Fortune could have done even more to surprise us as an audience. It’s a testament to Hugh Grant and company, that it’s most likely still of interest to a more generous viewer. This particular viewer has a renewed urge to go and watch Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid instead.

Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre will be released on March 3, 2023!

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