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This is an archive article published on January 6, 2023
Operation Fortune Ruse de Guerre movie review: This film does Jason Statham, Guy Ritchie no favours
Operation Fortune Ruse de Guerre movie review: The film is done in by snide jokes at smart women, banter bordering on risque and generalisation about Russians and their 'lackey' Ukrainians.
Operation Fortune Ruse de Guerre movie review: The film stars Jason Statham, Aubrey Plaza, and Hugh Grant among others.
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Operation Fortune Ruse de Guerre movie review: This film does Jason Statham, Guy Ritchie no favours
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This film serves no purpose for the body of work of Ritchie, Statham, Plaza or Grant, or to the genre of movies where a group of people save humanity. Its only underhand success seems to be allowing the tainted production house Miramax some punches at this whole new world, which saw its founder Harvey Weinstein get his due in jail.
Hence, the jabs at woke-ism, with Grant’s openly lascivious arms dealer, Simmons, giving Aubrey’s undercover spy Fidel a lookover and remarking, “I am not sure if I am allowed to say this anymore, but wow, just wow!”
There are snide jokes at smart women, and a broad swipe at how-brow art talk, with Fidel throwing together words like “paradox of dualistic motivation” in order to hold forth on a painting hanging in an anteroom to a washroom. Statham’s spymaster Fortune, meanwhile, spends guiltlessly (not his money, for sure) on luxuries such as expensive wine, while mocking boss Nathan’s (Elwes) reductive, “lactose-intolerant” diet. There is even a scene involving a producer who looks suspiciously like Weinstein, who buckles to government threats saying “they have something on me too”.
Watch Operation Fortune Ruse de Guerre movie trailer:
But if Operation Fortune gets away with such banter bordering on risque, another generalisation about Russians and their lackey Ukrainians almost did the film in, given the fresh sensitivies about that corner of the world. The release was delayed as the producer wondered what to do about it. Still, bad, faceless guys just referred to as Ukrainians do get mentioned several times, while an ineffectual man who looks like Ukraine’s heroic President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, drops in for a couple of seconds.
So some Russians are the bad guys, and a British team with strings going right up to 10, Downing Street, are the good ones. America is there in the form of Fidel as well as a Hollywood actor, Danny Francesco (Hartnett), who is forced by the British team into helping them get to Simmons.
Hartnett is particularly funny in parts and desperately trying to be Brad Pitt in others.
Quite like Operation Fortune or, that addendum in fancy French in its title: Ruse de Guerre.
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But, a ruse by any other name still smells a ruse.
Operation Fortune Ruse de Guerre movie director: Guy Ritchie
Operation Fortune Ruse de Guerre movie cast: Jason Statham, Aubrey Plaza, Hugh Grant, Josh Hartnett, Cary Elwes, Bugzy Malone
Operation Fortune Ruse de Guerre movie review: 1.5 stars
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