Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre

Available on Amazon Prime now

Summarising Guy Ritchie’s latest slice of cinematic machismo is an especially difficult task, given that it is almost impossible to decipher whether the absurdly far-fetched Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre is an exercise in sincerity or a total spoof.

The plot alone, which Ritchie co-wrote with The Gentleman collaborators Ivan Atkinson and Marn Davies, certainly leans towards the latter scenario, it being focused on a comically named super spy (played by Jason Statham with all the vigour of a doorknob) and his efforts to retrieve a device that is powerful enough to crash the global economy.

The spy (who is genuinely named Orson Fortune) is helped along the way by two fellow sleuths, who are played by the British rapper Bugzy Malone and Aubrey Plaza. The latter is certainly far better than this sort of fare, though she does seem to have fun in the sort of ‘hot computer hacker’ role that only a director as retrograde as Ritchie could perceive as being progressive.

Unless of course, he doesn’t see it that way and Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre is actually an ingenious takedown of the chauvinist action flicks of yesteryear. Personally, given Ritchie's previous output, I doubt that that’s the case but this film is certainly nutty enough for that to be true, as is evidenced by Hugh Grant’s character, who at the very least is the campest arms dealer you will ever see on screen.