OPERATION FORTUNE : RUSE DE GUERRE - Tuesday 17th January 2023.

'OPERATION FORTUNE : RUSE DE GUERRE' which I saw earlier this week is an M Rated American spy action comedy film Co-Written and Directed by Guy Ritchie whose previous film making credits take in the likes of 'Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels', 'Snatch', 'Sherlock Holmes', 'Sherlock Holmes : Game of Shadows', 'The Man from U.N.C.L.E.', 'Aladdin', 'The Gentlemen' and 'Wrath of Man' in 2021. It was originally slated for release at the end of January last year and then mid-March 2022. In mid-February 2022, the film was pulled from the release schedule without comment by the studio. Reports indicate the film was pulled from release, not due to the COVID-19 pandemic as before, but because it featured gangsters of Ukrainian nationality as the main antagonist's henchmen. The film's Producers thought it would be of bad taste, in light of the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian War, for the movie to present 'Ukrainian baddies'. The film has garnered mixed or average Reviews and so far has grossed US$11.0M in Box Office receipts since its international release on 4th January and in Australia from the 12th January. 

The film opens up with a seemingly well executed raid on a secret tech lab, where the perpetrators of said raid steal a device that is dubbed 'The Handle'. It is determined that the device must have importance since its price tag on the black market is US$10B. It turns out that the nefarious perpetrators of the raid were the Ukrainian mob. The British government, under the auspices of Norman Knighton (Eddie Marsan) recruits Nathan Jasmine (Cary Elwes) to locate and retrieve, by almost any means possible, The Handle before it falls in to the hands of billionaire arms dealer Greg Simmonds (Hugh Grant) who in turn would then sell it to the highest bidder. Jasmine recruits his go to man and super spy Orson Fortune (Jason Statham, who also Co-Produces here, and collaborates with Ritchie for the fifth time) as well as the very tech savvy Sarah Fidel (Aubrey Plaza), the very handy sharp shooter JJ Davies (Bugzy Malone) and various others. 

And so the team travels to Madrid, seeking the courier intended to transport the hard drive containing the data from The Handle. Their search is scuppered by former colleague of Fortune, Mike (Peter Ferdinando) who has gone out on his own, hired a crack team and who also seems to have been hired to retrieve The Handle. Fortune and JJ manage to prevent Mike's team from getting to the courier and take him away, but he suffers a heart attack and dies before telling them the entire code. However, Sarah manages to copy the hard drive's contents before Mike catches up with them and steals it.

Sarah learns that Simmonds plans to host a charity gala aboard his lavish yacht in Cannes. The team decides to infiltrate the yacht by blackmailing Simmonds' all time favourite movie star, Danny Francesco (Josh Hartnett) into helping them. While Simmonds is distracted by Danny, Fortune deals with another of Mike's men masquerading as a waiter, and Sarah is tasked with getting close to Simmonds' phone so JJ can clone it, so allowing the team to track the arms dealer. Simmonds encourages Danny to spend the weekend at his Turkish villa in Antalya, so that he can gain inspiration for his next movie role which Danny describes as being a mysterious self made billionaire type, to which Simmonds replies that he's just described him! Fortune stealthily breaks into the Ukrainian mafia house to hack their computers, disguising it as a robbery by stealing cash and jewellery. The British government meanwhile calls Nathan to warn him that The Handle is an advanced artificial intelligence that can be programmed to defeat any security system in the world. Learning from the computer information that the exchange for The Handle will take place in Antalya, the team travels to Turkey, and take up Simmonds offer to stay at his villa.

While Simmonds shows Danny his private car collection, Fortune and JJ follow Simmonds' right hand man Ben Harris (Max Beesley) with Fortune giving chase on foot while JJ helps to track the man from his vehicle. After a chase through the side streets and alleyways, Harris attacks Fortune, who by accident is killed when he falls over a protective railing at the top of a tall lookout tower. Fortune stands in for Harris at the exchange (as the Ukrainians would be unfamiliar with what Harris looks like) with Sarah using a computer programme to disguise Fortunes's voice to that of Harris's in order to fool Simmonds, so that he can relay a sixteen digit access code to activate The Handle. 

The exchange goes south when Fortune is recognised by one of the Ukrainian guards who was at the house the night Fortune broke in. Danny and Sarah escape Simmonds' villa before Simmonds learns what they have been doing. Meanwhile, Mike arrives, attacks, and kills everyone except Fortune and steals The Handle. JJ saves Fortune by taking out Mike's henchmen from afar, and the two take a helicopter to go to the aid of Danny and Sarah.

Nathan informs the team that Mike was not hired by any government and that he has gone rogue, and that a third party contracted him to steal The Handle. Lacking knowledge about the buyer, Fortune suggests talking to Simmonds. In spite of the problems the team caused him, Simmonds is willing to help, telling them that the buyers were a pair of billionaire bio-tech moguls, Arnold and Trent, whose intended use of The Handle is to create a worldwide financial collapse, while becoming richer through their ownership of large quantities of gold, which would become the world's only stable economic asset. 

And so Simmonds and Danny go to confront Arnold, Trent, and Mike in Arnold and Trent's HQ. Fortune successfully infiltrates the place by taking out numerous goons with support from Sarah and JJ. After Simmonds and Danny have said their piece and made their own demands, they leave. Mike tells his men to kill Arnold and Trent, starting a shoot-out. Fortune arrives after the carnage and manages to retrieve The Handle, but is then attacked by Mike, who is beaten about the head several times with the case containing The Handle, killing him stone dead. 

Fortune, Sarah and JJ follow Nathan to Doha, where they are offered another job, only for them to decide to take a holiday. Nathan demands that Fortune return the cash and jewels from the robbery at the Ukrainian villa, but reveals that he's used the proceeds to finance Danny's latest movie project in which he plays a fictionalised version of Greg Simmonds.

'Operation Fortune : Ruse de Guerre' is formulaic and predictable fare for sure, but nonetheless entertaining enough. The cast led by 'The Stath' who once again is in full ass-kicking, gun-toting, quips at the ready mode falls effortlessly into his usual tough guy persona, ably supported by those other British screen acting veterans Grant, Elwes and Marsan who all looked as though they were having a good time in making this film, as did the token American contingent of Hartnett and Plaza. For Writer and Director Ritchie, he has certainly found his calling with this type of action comedic offering and it appears, for now at least, that he doesn't want to deviate away from it. He delivers the action set pieces well enough, the humorous one-liners raised a smile and the occasional chuckle, but the story line is just a little too far fetched to keep it grounded or relatable. It's an enjoyable romp, not up there with his best, but for an early year start to big screen entertainment where you can switch off and just go with the flow, you could do worse.

'Operation Fortune : Ruse de Guerre' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard, from a potential five claps. 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-