Rating: R | Runtime: 114 minutes
Release Date: March 3rd, 2023 (USA)
Studio: Lionsgate
Director(s): Guy Ritchie
Writer(s): Guy Ritchie and Ivan Atkinson & Marn Davies

You can’t catch this fish with conventional lures.

I think I heard bad things about Guy Ritchie’s Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre. Maybe they were a product of its delay (which seems more to do with a changing of hands between STX and Lionsgate than quality issues). Maybe they could be attributed to people enjoying taking the piss out of Ritchie. Maybe I just misremembered.

Whatever the case, me being a Guy Ritchie apologist (I don’t think I’ve ever disliked one of his films even if none have matched the height of Snatch) means I’m going in ready to have a good time regardless. And while Cary Elwes appearing on-screen with a determined gait crosscut against an explosive heist might have instantaneously cemented my investment because I’m binging “Psych” and loving his recurring cameo, I was nevertheless onboard and eating up the fast-paced and quippy opening exposition dump hand over fist.

Recruiting Elwes as the ever-cool-under-pressure yet always-exasperated-by-his-team’s-shenanigans general of a British-sanctioned, off-the-books freelance outfit is inspired casting. He plays Nathan Jasmine, recruited by Eddie Marsan’s government agent to retrieve what was stolen from said heist, determine its buyer, and figure out what it was. That’s right. They don’t know what’s missing. Only that it’s created a black market buzz with numbers like ten billion dollars being bandied about.

His first hire is his trusted liability of a badass, phobia-riddled (as an excuse to run up Her Majesty’s bill on exorbitantly priced wine while flying) right-hand Orson Fortune (Jason Statham). On tech is newcomer Sarah Fidel (Aubrey Plaza), recently unemployed after Nathan’s usual guy was poached by her former boss—rival black ops general Mike (Peter Ferdinando). And rounding out the team is JJ Davies’ (Bugzy Malone) Swiss Army knife bruiser.

Add an out-of-his-element movie star (not to be confused with “actor”) named Danny Francesco (a hilarious Josh Hartnett), charismatic billionaire arms dealer Greg Simmonds (Hugh Grant), and a couple tech moguls trying hard (and failing) to fit in with a dark world of cutthroat violence and you can imagine the type of hijinks Ritchie and his co-writers Ivan Atkinson and Marn Davies have in store.

A twisty action-thriller despite containing few to no real surprises where motives and reveals are concerned, its true worth is its characters’ rapport. Orson busting everyone’s chops. Sarah’s inability to stop her justified ego and penchant for sarcasm to drive her retorts. And the brilliant bromance between Danny and Greg that forms naturally despite the former being completely terrified to enter this world after being blackmailed into helping. I earnestly laughed out loud often.

It’s therefore not in the vein of his last film Wrath of Man so those who thought Ritchie had gone serious shouldn’t worry. It’s not as polished as The Man From U.N.C.L.E. either. If I could put it into a box I’d say it’s his attempt at a Mission: Impossible filtered through the humorous lens utilized on The Gentlemen. The bad men are bad, but they’re mostly here as toys with which Statham and company can play.

Tell Orson that the person he’s about to fight is as ruthless as they come and he rolls his eyes about only wanting to know the guy’s name, not his dossier. Because skills and reputation don’t matter until they do and only for those who are on the poster. To Orson, Nathan, and even Greg, this is all a game wherein betrayal can be forgiven for the price of genuine enthusiasm or blackmail material. It may not be enough to petition for a sequel, but it’s a lot of fun for fans of Ritchie’s usual formula.

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Jason Statham, Josh Hartnett & Aubrey Plaza in OPERATION FORTUNE: RUSE DE GUERRE; photo by Dan Smith/Lionsgate.