Picoreview: Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre – this was great fun.
It *looked* like a movie where Jason Statham got to be funny again, and after his magnificent turn in SPY, I really wanted to see him get a chance to be funny again. He was not AS funny in this as he was in SPY, but he was pretty funny. :)
This was kind of like Guy Ritchie said “Okay, fine, I’m not going to get to do a sequel to MAN FROM UNCLE, so I’m just gonna…file some serial numbers off and make my own version, kinda.” It’s quippy and fast-paced and reasonably clever and features Hugh Grant channeling Michael Caine for all he’s worth (honestly, I feel certain in my bones that’s how they decided to build the character), and aside from a couple of moments where I was afraid people were going to have their arms broken in bad ways during fight scenes, it wasn’t too violent for me, which I’d been concerned it would be. It also has Josh Hartnett (me: is that what’s his face? ted: yep!), who is currently flying high on his role in Oppenheimer, but who is not that challenged in this movie. :D (He is good, though.)
I didn’t know the female lead, Aubrey Plaza, at all, but she was a delight, and my two favorite scenes of hers were nothing more than just her talking, almost uninterrupted. And I’m always glad when I see Cary Elwes on screen, in this case in the Hugh Grant role from MAN FROM UNCLE.
Also, the first ~4 minutes or so had such incredible sound design that I really desperately hoped the entire movie would continue to use it. It did not, and in the film’s defense it would have been hard *to* continue using it, like, a real technical and storytelling challenge, but god damn, it would have been brilliant. I would have loved to have seen that. As it was, those few minutes at the start of the film still left enough of an impression for me to mention it.
It’s on Amazon Prime over here. IDK if it got a theatrical release, although it certainly was big-budgeted enough for one, and I’d think it would have brought in the audiences. I’d definitely watch sequels!