A spirited cast, including Jason Statham and Aubrey Plaza, help deliver a fun time in Guy Ritchie’s slick and silly action comedy
After briefly disappearing into the Hollywood machine, steering IP-based franchises rather than creating his own films, Guy Ritchie is having something of a Shyamalan-esque B-movie reinvention. The big-budget bloat of Aladdin, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword and The Man from Uncle (fondly remembered by some but wisely forgotten by most) has gone and, instead, there’s a renewed sense of purpose, a returned vitality that had gone missing. While the director has not exactly regressed to his roots per se, he has focused more on what he does well rather than what pays him well, from having a boss to being the boss.
While The Gentlemen might not have been quite the riot Ritchie seemed to think it was, 2021’s brooding revenge thriller Wrath of Man delivered an effectively arresting jolt to the system and he’s re-teamed with star Jason Statham for his latest, the absurdly titled yet absurdly enjoyable Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre. It’s got a bit of a cursed backstory – it was shot during Covid, later renamed (it was originally called Five Eyes, blander but better), then yanked off the release schedule twice in early 2022 due to fears over Ukrainian baddies seeming in bad taste, sold from STX to Lionsgate early this year and now being released, nay dumped, a few weeks later (it will go straight to Amazon Prime in the UK) – all of which belies a rather sleekly entertaining little romp, the light to Wrath of Man’s dark.
