Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre
                                                                                                                            
Director: Guy Ritchie
Year: 2023
Rating: 6.5
AI - aka Super Intelligence to idiots -  is the villain in this film. Something we should probably get used to until AI decides it doesn't like being portrayed as the villain and decides to stop it. AI is here to help us. The film is another teaming up of Jason Statham and director Guy Ritchie. Ritchie is really responsible for putting Statham on the map with three early films in Statham's career - Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998), Snatch (2000) and Revolver (2005). All lowish budget very British films that were well received. By their fourth film together, Wrath of Man,  in 2021 and this one,  Statham was a big star and Ritchie a top director. Ritchie gets bigger budgets and Statham is now the clear hero with the film centering around him. Both films are fun, but feel very vanilla with none of the eccentricities, edge and character of those early films.



I had no idea this was directed by Ritchie till the end credits. It has none of his grit; its slick and smooth. A nice ride. A little Mission Impossible, a touch of Bond and a lot of Statham being Statham. But I like Statham and took a look at his resume. I have seen many of his films other than the Fast and Furious ones, The Expendables and a couple of others, Meg. And I have enjoyed them all. I find his character which really doesn't change much from film to film low key appealing. They give him some solid support here - Aubrey Plaza as his smutty tech genius, Cary Elwes as his boss, Eddie Marsan as Elwes's boss, Hugh Grant as a lecherous billionaire criminal and Josh Hartnett as a likable actor pulled into the plot. All good performances especially Grant.



The plot itself feels like it was pulled off the shelf. A mix of a hundred other rejected scripts. Or written by AI. A mysterious object is stolen from a lab and put on the market for $10 billion. The British govt doesn't know what it is, but they have Elwes put together a team to get it. A small team of Statham, Plaza, Bugzy Malone as all around guy and they blackmail the big action star, Hartnett into helping them. That is because the middle man in the sale, Grant, is a huge fan of the actor and it is their way in. Lots and lots of bad guys that I could not tell apart, technology that can hack into anything within minutes and Statham killing most of those bad guys. Makes for fun if nothing that will stay in your memory banks for long.