Its back to spy movies again and this time instead of going straight to Netflix, this one will be going into theatres this friday March 3rd. The Guy Richie film features an all star cast including a familiar face in the spy/hitman/hired gun genre, Jason Statham. So did Ritchie’s third such genre film back to back pay off? Check out my thoughts below.
Elite spy Orson Fortune must track down and stop the sale of a deadly new weapons technology wielded by billionaire arms broker Greg Simmonds. Reluctantly teamed up with some of the world’s best operatives, Fortune and his crew recruit Hollywood’s biggest movie star, Danny Francesco, to help them on their globe-trotting mission to save the world.
Review
Guy Ritchie’s movies have a certain style to them, and he loves to bring back his favorite cast members across multiple films. Operation Fortune is no exception. In a film that fits into the spy genre, Ritchie seems to have a desire to focus on it with the last 3 films in the last 3 years being dedicated to that genre. Of course this features an all star leading cast that includes Jason Statham, Hugh Grant, Aubrey Plaza, Josh Hartnett and Cary Elwes.
Starting with the plot, the film is nothing revolutionary. Secret weapon is stolen from a lab and unknown parties and we must stop it from getting sold on the black market. So the secret miltary services of Britain must find and stop the sale of this weapon. But where Ritchie tries to make it unique is that nobody knows what was stolen, and another team that is frequently used by the government is also in toe for it, leading to some not so friendly competition among the two teams. The reveal of the item stolen at the end was the weakest part of the plot. They gave very little thought to it and only really threw it out as an afterthought. Frankly by that point in the film, nobody really cared about it anymore.
Casting for the film was interesting to say the least but ended up landing a few well paired groups overall. Aubrey Plaza has a very specific type of humor and character’s she plays but I am happy to say here she expands on that and playing opposite Statham’s Fortune their styles pair up very nicely and result in some fairly hilarious exchanges throughout the film. I have to admit its been a long time since I have really seen Josh Hartnett in anything but here he plays an actor who plays himself in order to infiltrate the bad guys inner circle (Hugh Grants character). This reminds me of the Nick Cage film that was recently released with Pedro Pascal. Its a trope in the spy genre that has been a bit overplayed. Harnett and Grant’s pair up though was again a perfect mix of styles and character personalilties that made it interesting. I do feel that Cary Elwes was under used in the film overall.
You might catch cast members who have appeared in previous films of Guy Ritchies, like Hugh Grant (The Gentlemen), or Statham (Wrath of Man). This follows a similar trend for many of his films but the running gag that had me smiling the most was “Which Mike?”. In the King Arthur film there was a scene in which the leads were joking with one of the black leg sargents about which Mike he was talking about. Because apparently there were a lot of Mike’s. Well the same actor who played Mercier in that film (Peter Ferdinando), plays Mike in this film. So the connections there are fun to catch.
Overall it was an enjoyable spy film that erred on the side of comedic over serious, but finds itself sitting dead center in a sea of spy films that have over saturated the genre. Still if you are a fan of Guy Ritchie, or even films like Red Notice or The Gentlemen, Operation Fortune is a fun film to sit back and enjoy, though I might recommend waiting until it hits streaming.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Lionsgate.
