Directed By Guy Ritchie

Starring – Jason Statham, Aubrey PLaza, Hugh Grant

The Plot – Super spy Orson Fortune (Statham) must track down and stop the sale of a deadly new weapons technology wielded by billionaire arms broker Greg Simmonds (Grant). Reluctantly teamed with some of the world’s best operatives (Plaza, Cary Elwes, Bugzy Malone), Fortune and his crew recruit Hollywood’s biggest movie star Danny Francesco (Josh Hartnett) to help them on their globe-trotting undercover mission to save the world.

Rated R for adult language and violence

Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre | Official Trailer | Coming Soon – YouTube

POSITIVES

Guy Ritchie is a director who above all else supplants fun to the engagements of his films, and “Operation Fortune” is certainly no exception, combining a vibrancy for personality in both the accessibility of the dialogue and his presentation, which makes this feel like a greatest hits of defined characteristics and familiarity for him. First and foremost, this is a mystery caper, allowing Ritchie another opportunity to showcase his love and appreciation for the 70’s crime shows of his childhood, with sleek side-scrolling editing techniques, an abundance of globe-trotting locations as backdrops to the universal stakes of the film’s conflict, and of course Ritchie’s usual strange camera placements, in everything from the top of an automatic riffle to even helicoptor blades during landing. Everything here conveys itself to the distinction of influence persisting just beyond the camera, and in turn equally lends itself to the many beats of the characters that easily serve as the single best aspect of the entire production. Because Ritchie refuses to lose himself in the urgency and vulnerability of his conflicts, we are given a richly vast and attention dominating ensemble of great actos to use at his disposal, with Statham, Plaza and especially Grant serving as the stand-outs in measurement. Statham plays every role he’s ever played for twenty years, but still attains the believability in crisp and unforgiving physicality that compliments his dry charisma endlessly, and Plaza, with her ever-increasing list of capabilities, shines exceptionally as a special ops secret agent, bringing along her dark and sensual mystique that feels perfect for Ritchie’s brand of tastelessly off-beat humor that not everyone in the audience will always appreicate. Then there’s Grant, who has made a career out of scene-stealing turns recently, and here continues that streak as an antagonist who slimes his way into many uniquely charming dynamics throughout the film, with a commitment to vocal diversions that occasionally allow his familiarity to disappear within the confines of the role, in turn making him feel around ten to fifteen years his senior. Finally, while the film’s appreciation is taken down by an inferior second half that I will get to in a second, the movie’s opening half hour is the best I’ve ever remembered with action movie capers, complete with sequences that not only showcase the skills of the characters assembled, but also uses long-winded exposition dumps as a means of necessity in affording us the kind of knowledge and relationships to the conflict that we require to follow along properly. This is where the film’s pacing flows at its most urgent, transcribing circumstantial whiplash as a result of the plot that continuously keeps unfolding, but equally the kind that merit authenticity in the depths of a race against the clock that we’re given little to no circumstantial levity from, appraising an easily accissible narrative that surprisingly doesn’t cut corners during the many missions it’s tacking on to this once one-dimensional objective.

NEGATIVES

Unfortunately, the hit or miss history that I have with Ritchie materialized once more during the film’s second half, where inconsistencies in direction and overall production render “Operation Fortune” as another mediocre effort in the history of an exhillarating director. It starts with the inconsistencies of pacing, which during the smooth and urgent nature of the movie’s first half, finds itself subdued during the second, with an abundance of unnecessary subplots and improper time devotion that made it feel every bit the extent of its 107 minute run time. One such example is in the blossoming bromance between Grant and Josh Hartnett, which initially is a necessity in the special ops finding their way into the crime underbelly of this organization, but then followed up as one that adds little to nothing to the importance of the ever-changing narrative, instead feeling like quirky and uncomfortable engagements used as nothing more than padding to the finish line. In addition to this, the consistency in comedy that I previously heralded takes a backseat to an overwhelming element of intensity, which while effective in maximizing the tension of the many action sequences, does omit from it the very traits that made it stand out from a crowded room of other action capers. During the first act, Ritchie capably balances the humor and intensity accordingly, leading to sequences I truly couldn’t look away from, but during the second half there’s clearly a value of one over the other, and I found myself losing interest the longer the film persisted. Speaking of lost interests, the film’s plot eventually over-exerts itself with an evolution to its storytelling that marries convoluted with disjointed, frustratingly. Being lost in the motivations of certain character movements is one thing, but when it all resolves itself with the only possible reveal that it rightfully could’ve with so few characters outside of our group, it leads to disappointment, wasting away a compelling mystery that casually gets away from Ritchie’s overwhelmed grip.

OVERALL
“Operation Fortune” isn’t the weakest effort from Guy Ritchie, but it is an example of the dwindling returns of inconsistency that have unfortunately defined the second half of his prestigious career. With the warmths of a charming cast at his disposal, Ritchie capably captures the attention of his audience, but wastes their talents away with a frustratingly barebones mystery and tonal abandonment that proves fortune doesn’t favor the bold.

My Grade: 6/10 or C