Review of Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre (2023) by Hnestlyonthesly — 22 May 2023

Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre is Guy Ritchie’s latest project and in many ways it follows the formula that has made his films such a treat in the past: a star-studded ensemble, witty dialogue, and very impressive brawling. It also happens to have some twists and turns that allow you to root for the baddies from time to time and to hiss at the goodies, which is fun. Aubrey Plaza holds her own against the boys by rolling her eyes whenever she can. Jason Statham never, ever takes a punch, as if he’s contractually not allowed to, which basically amounts to him beating the **** out of an endless parade of special ops guys dressed in plain clothes like Mario having ingested a star plowing through his enemies to get to the ever-wandering McGuffin of the film, a briefcase containing… something? dangerous? (The actual threat to humanity that’s being sold at the steep, steep price of $10b is trendily stupid and the evil geniuses plot is similarly pretty dull – I mean, hey, it’s not buying up all the world’s aquifers and then making it really hot dumb, but it’s not dissimilar to that.) Really the only person who has a difficult time of it is Bugzy Malone, who gets stuck shooting people from afar like my Brother playing Call of Duty for the past ten years. Bugzy spends a lot of the movie saying stuff like, “Sounds good, boss,” and “Do you want me to get the car started, boss?” which is no way to steal the show. Josh Hartnett’s role as an action hero used as a honeypot for a criminal kingpin fan weirdly twins the plot of another film in recent memory, where x plays an action hero used as a honeypot for a criminal kingpin fan. After a little bit of online sleuthing the only two movies I can find that follow this pattern are from 2022, The Lost City of Z and more so the Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent.

But Friend after I mentioned this at the movie supplied Ocean’s 8 as having a similar plotline, and TVTropes talks about casting stars as stars and metacasting quite a bit, though none of them are the exact match that I am thinking of at the moment.

Criticisms of the weirdnesses of the plot aside, the way in which Ritchie toys with genre scenes, the heist, the banter between the team and the banter between the rival teams, and ultimately the twist in allegiances make for a satisfying watch. The script is positively buoyant, effervescent, even. Ruse is more concern with sounding clever than being clever, which is not a knock so much as a signature of Ritchie’s later work.