I was casually waiting for this film to turn up on the cinema listings any day now, as thrice they have given it a release date and thrice it has been taken down again. Imagine my surprise when I log into Prime only to see it's had a sneaky release there instead!
I'm not disappointed, but it was going to be the centre of a wee family night out. It's not often I get an excuse to drag my entire family out to my favourite place, but in the words of my parents, it's probably best we didn't see this at the cinema.
Instead we watched it on Good Friday. It was nice to spend an afternoon watching mindless TV.
I thought it was alright. Let's get my voice out there first, I liked it. I'd watch the sequels, and at a push I might watch this one again. The 'rents on the other hand agreed that it was alright, but they are used to peak Richie, Lock Stock and Sherlock Holmes. You know, the real cinematic stuff. In comparison, I can see how Operation Fortune is a bit of a let down, but I respect that Guy Richie has moved on.
Let me explain. I feel like Richie has moved more into story telling. Instead of showing us his trademark action scenes, he's aged his style into quintessentially British violent storytelling. Of course we still get the action scenes, but they aren't the focus anymore. The clever and elaborate details and hints laid out before us are. I think maybe that's why Richie's movies aren't hitting the mark with audiences like they used to, because it's no longer mindless watching, its cinema you need to think about. This is why I like it. I like movies which make you engage, which make your mind work and that you have to listen for. Of course this is better in a cinema and not a house as at least you HAVE to be silent in the cinema to enjoy it and the option of your phone is taken away.
Take the Gentleman as an example of this. You've got the action, but you've also got pieces of a puzzle. You get a end-bound scene first, with an important part of the character's outcome removed (the shooting of Matty M) and you then find out the why, the how, the who, etc. It's clever. There is no mindless violence as all these organizations are meant to be on the quiet, Richie has pivoted into the more realistic, he has moved with the times. I mean back in the arse end of the 80s into the 90s you would probably see a mindless brawl on the streets. A knife wielding maniac, you'd hear stories of gangsters being fed to pigs and you would probably not have batted an eyelid. Nowadays it's fiction. Great story grandpa, but that shit doesn't happen anymore. Our streets are relatively safe, brawls dont end in murder as people step in, if a weirdo is carrying a knife you run or report them and they are taken in, these things are no longer the norm. Our world has moved into espionage and crime going hand in hand. It's gone a bit full circle hasnt it, life back in the dark ages (1920's up lol) used to be pretty safe (if your face fit) and we've gone back to that only more inclusive. It's vaguely safe for everyone now. Our main geezer is a drug dealer getting rich af with a bad-ass wife to boot, he uses his brains, he is a modern bad boy role model. I appreciate this.
Operation Fortune has turned this on its head a little. Statham is back with his old mate and is technically now on the good side of the law (or is the law) with his carefully acquired punching skills. He is once again in a spy role (can't help but think this poor fella has been typecast...), and needs to stop a sale of an AI which can bring down entire countries and start mass war. Now that is pretty much this film in a nutshell, but if you want some more detail they do this by employing an actor who the baddie (Hugh Grant) is obsessed with in order to infiltrate and get their hands on the AI. I'm not going to say anymore or else it'll spoil it.
Hugh Grant is basically playing his slimy character from The Gentleman complete with campy accent. A far cry from the days of Four Weddings, but I kinda like that in his older ager he has flipped his roles on its head. Instead of a journalist he is a wealthy billionaire who is quite frankly disgusting, but he played it really well. Grant is surprisingly the highlight of this movie for me, what with him and Plaza the dry humour is what was most enjoyable for me, the rest is just another spy movie. I'm sorry.
The premise here was really good, but the execution was rushed at the end of the day. My mum thinks if there was a little more action then maybe it would have been better, but it was just a mis-mash of scenes otherwise. I get what she is saying, the plot jumped a lot and I'm not sure if that was due to some rushed editing due to a certain war and the bad guys homeland in this film, or if just because it wasn't a great movie. I can see why it went for a home release though, the box office would not have been great.
So on that note, I'm going to give Operation Fortune a 5/10. Watchable, mindless, would I watch it again? Yes, but I'd probably have my phone out the whole time. It was clever, just not engaging enough to be appreciated. I see where Richie wanted to go with this, but I just don't think it came close. Unfortunate.
Anyone else seen this film? Whaddya think? Comment on my socials!
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