Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre

When a device known as "The Handle" is stolen by Ukrainian mercenaries that kills scientists and security guards and blow-up the place, the member of the British government Knighton (Eddie Marsan) asks the responsible for security Nathan Jasmine (Cary Elwes) to hire and independent team to retrieve the device. Nathan hires the efficient, but expensive mercenary Orson Fortune (Jason Statham), the hacker Sarah Fidel (Aubrey Plaza) and the efficient sniper JJ Davies (Bugzy Malone) to discover what "The Handle" is and retrieve it before the wealthy arms dealer Greg Simmonds (Hugh Grant) sells it to the highest bidder. The team travels to Madrid and meets the courier of "The Handle" in the airport and learn that it is a hard drive. However, they are disturbed by the mercenary Mike (Peter Ferdinando), who is Nathan's competitor that is also interested in "The Handle" and the courier dies, and Mike gets the HD after Sarah copy its data. However, it is cryptographed and the team needs means to get close to Greg to get the password. They blackmail the star Danny Francesco (Josh Hartnett), who had a love affair with his sister-in-law and is Greg's favorite actor, to go to a party in Cannes. Now the action begins to save the world from the powerful technology.

"Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre" (2023) is a funny and entertaining action movie by Guy Ritchie. The excellent cast has names such as Jason Statham, Hugh Grant, Cary Elwes and Josh Hartnett among others, all of them with good performances. Hugh Grants performs a charming arms dealer; Josh Hartnett is in the role of a famous actor of action movies; Cary Elwes in the role of efficient mercenary's coordinator; and Jason Statham in his usual role of kick-ass. The beautiful Aubrey Plaza and Bugzy Malone complete the great lead cast. The last scene with Greg and Danny is hilarious. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Esquema de Risco: Operação Fortune" ("Risk Scheme: Operation Fortune")

'Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre' is the 5th time director Guy Ritchie has used Jason Statham in one of his films - and if it ain't broke, don't fix it! This is a pretty straight-forward spy-action-adventure, with a fair bit of comedy thrown in - closer to 'The Man From U. N. C. L. E.' than 'Wrath of Man'. I'd say I liked it better than 'The Gentlemen', but not as much as 'Snatch'. There is only minor introductions for Orson Fortune (Statham), Sarah (Plaza) and JJ (Malone) as the spy team working for Nathan (Elwes), before we're off and running.

Not sure why the "Ruse de Guerre" suffix was needed, but it translates as a cunning war trick. I assume it also helps if there are to be sequels. The trick is that the team use actor Danny Francesco (Hartnett) as bait for billionaire arms-dealer Greg Simmonds (Grant), to track a stolen weapon. Most of the plot is quite formulaic, but Statham & Ritchie know how to stage action scenes and there's plenty of exciting moments.

Hartnett plays spoiled actor well; Plaza has plenty of fun; Malone, Elwes and Statham are all solid; with Hugh Grant relishing the role, having even more fun than he did in 'The Gentlemen'. Not too long, satisfying ending, noting too new, but a nice mix of comedy and action with a good cast.

This would be a "straight to DVD" if not for Guy Ritchie. As a Ritchie-fan i was quite disappointed walking home from the theatre. I miss the dialogue Guy Ritchie is known for. The scence of black humor we know from other Guy Ritchie movies is also missing.

Hugh Grant saves the day with his performance, but we also see terrible acting from Josh Hartnett among others. Statham is Statham, nothing more, nothing less.

Don't spend your money watching this film in theatres. In a few weeks, it will probably be available on Netflix and as a tuesday evening timekiller it's probably worth watching. Be better next time Guy, we know that you could do better.

Highly disappointed with this movie. I don't know if I had too high of an expectation but the movie was a huge let down.

Acting was mediocre(except for Mr Grant), action was meaningless and dumb most of the time, comedic relief was slow and far between.

The story itself is really what drags this movie down tho, the premise is bad, unimaginative and full of plotholes. The scenario seems rushed, the dialog is abysmal and one liners are abundant and unfunny.

Filmography is ok-ish, there are a couple of good scenes, but most is outlandish but not in a good way.

All in all, this movie(franchise if they get away with it) is sadly just a huge cash grab with no real essence.

If it wasn't a Guy Ritchie nobody would even know it exists.

The good: Hugh Grant is brilliant in his role as a powerful mastermind criminal. But that's not enough...

The bad: this spy flick is lacking in real thrill. And it definitely intended to be a real thrilling spy flick. One down.

More bad: the jokes arent really funny. Missing the mark almost every time. That's two down.

Even more bad: the supporting actors are bland. All of them. That's three down.

Beware all you Jason Statham fans, this movie surely aint a terrible spy action flick, but it is definitely not Jason Statham's best either, because I have seen all his moves before, done better. And although the quirky and wonderful actress Aubrey Plaza is co starring I must admit that even her role is not her best either.

So what we have here is a below average spy flick, that just wont get really exciting.

Still worth a watch, but dont expect any originality or real thrill. It'll do as a mindless throwaway spy flick.