Review of Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre (2023) by Dukejon — 09 Jul 2023

It's ok. Just your average globe-trotting spy caper. I was disappointed in Jason Statham as I was hoping he would reprised a character similar to the role he played in "spy". We know he can handle comedy but the script is a bit thin in terms of laughs.

This movie never quite hits the right notes, I feel if they'd sharpened up the script it might have been a lot better. See "Red notice" for a similar movie that works because all the main leads have great chemistry.

Hugh Grant is a standout as the billionaire arms dealer. Aubrey Plaza is also good but not high the red-hot babe the film wants us to believe her to be. The rest of the characters are quite forgettable.

Also I didn't really buy into the premise of the UK having competing spy departments with unlimited budgets. The body count is also surprisingly high for a film of this type. The infiltration at the end sees a virtual slaughter of nameless henchmen - I would have preferred it if Statham's character had stealthily moved past them or incapacitated them rather than shoot everyone in the head without a second thought.

Seemed quite jarring against all the humour. Bugzy Malone is also quite underused - just a "yes boss" sidekick with no influence over the movie. It's a decent enough movie but with never quite adds up to the sum of its parts.