The humble heist film seems simple. Establish some charismatic thieves with specialized skill sets, come up with a valuable MacGuffin that a lot of people want, put it in the hands of someone immoral, slide in a couple of twists, and watch it go. Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre manages all of that stuff to one degree or another, but it still feels uninspired.
Guy Ritchie cut his teeth on fun heist films. His first two films, Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch practically invented the format. He returned to the craft with 2021's The Gentlemen, which was a perfectly serviceable callback. Operation Fortune brings back Ritchie's favorite action hero, but it feels like a lesser entry.
Operation Fortune follows the efforts to acquire a mysterious object called "The Handle." It's been stolen by mobsters and handed off to a sleazy arms dealer who plans to sell it for billions. The English government hires private contractor Nathan Jasmine to find out what it is and get it back before it's used for evil. Jasmine assembles a team of pros to engage in a series of heists. Seasoned pro Orson Fortune, hungry newcomer J. J. Davies, and new tech wizard Sarah Fidel set to work to snag the prize. Their scheme involves dragging in a famous movie star, attending a bunch of classy parties, and outmaneuvering a rival contractor. The film moves at a good clip, constantly splitting the party to engage in multiple lies, but it's not building to anything in particular.
Operation Fortune marks the fifth collaboration between Guy Ritchie and Jason Statham. Ritchie basically made Statham into the star he is today, but they're arguably equal contributors to the others' careers. Unshockingly, Statham's character is largely identical to any of his other classic performances. There are a lot of jokes about Fortune deliberately wasting Jasmine's money, but he's otherwise a blank vessel for fight scenes. Statham acquits himself well enough in fights and shootouts, but there's nothing special about any of the set pieces here. This won't be anyone's favorite Statham vehicle, any given Fast & Furious film handles him better, but it's not a weak point of his career either.
Aside from the big star, the rest of the cast is solid. If there's one meaningful takeaway from this project, it's that Aubrey Plaza is ready for an action franchise. Her character is as broad and inconsistent as the others, but she seems to have fun doing it. She spends too long typing and delivering exposition, but her couple of big moments demonstrate some hidden talents. Rapper Bugzy Malone doesn't get a lot to do as J. J., but he's likable and believable in the second-fiddle spy role. Cary Elwes never turned into the movie star he should've, so it's always nice to have him around. His comic timing is strong enough to turn what is basically a less funny take on Basil Exposition into something entertaining. Josh Hartnett is all over the place as the aforementioned movie star. Every character has traits that get brought up and forgotten between scenes, but he's the least consistent of the bunch. Hugh Grant has come around to silly genre villain roles, and they suit him well. There are no real weak links in the cast, but the script isn't doing them any favors.
Operation Fortune feels like a lot of other things. Most notably, however, it feels like a particularly well-funded episode of a TV show like Leverage. All the characters are broad archetypes, but they're introduced as if the audience should know who they are in advance. All the action scenes are utterly pedestrian, but that doesn't make them bad. Almost all the jokes fall completely flat, but the script just keeps trying. There's nothing special about the film, except for the strange editing choices, of which there are several.
The film is packed with weird decisions. There's a 10-second action scene that is initially skipped, only to be replayed multiple times. Though the characters are always speaking English, the film occasionally throws subtitles on the screen for certain accents. Malone even gets subtitles for exactly one scene. That means that someone on the crew must've thought people couldn't understand him, but didn't want to ask him to re-record the lines, so they just inserted closed captions for a character speaking English. Worst of all, the film just plain doesn't have a climax. Ironically, like a clandestine thief, it's only noticeable when it's messing up.
Operation Fortune is perfectly serviceable, but no one will remember it by this time next month. The film had a hard road to the big screen, but frankly, it's better suited for streaming. Fans of Guy Ritchie, Jason Statham, or low-brow heist movies as a concept will have some fun, but they've seen it all before. Operation Fortune is unremarkable, but anyone who urgently needs to see Statham play out his usual routine again will come away satisfied.