Guy Ritchie's long-delayed new movie gets mixed first reviews
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Guy Ritchie's new movie Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre has finally been released to mixed reviews, after a release delay of over a year.
The movie stars frequent Ritchie collaborator Jason Statham as special agent Orson Fortune. Orson and his team of operatives recruit a movie star to assist them on an undercover mission involving the sale of new weapons technology.
Also featuring A-list stars including Aubrey Plaza, Cary Elwes, Josh Hartnett and Hugh Grant, who worked with Ritchie on The Gentlemen, while the talent may be there, reviewers are divided as to whether the quality is there.
At time of writing, the film has a 'rotten' 57% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes — with the site's critical consensus reading: "Operation Fortune can't keep up with the best modern action movies, but it's got just enough firepower for viewers seeking a few undemanding thrills."
In a three-star review, The Guardian's Benjamin Lee wrote that while the movie is nothing we haven't seen before, "it’s slick in one moment and a little too scrappy the next but Ritchie's puppyish insistence that you have as much as fun as his stars is hard to resist".
Meanwhile, Johnny Oleksinksi of the New York Post wrote that the film is Ritchie's "most uninspired movie" so far.
Related: Why Guy Ritchie was hired for the Hercules live-action movie
"Lazily bopping around to exotic locales in France, Turkey and Qatar, it’s a generic collage of mega-yachts, luxe hotels, fancy parties, disguised identities and tame fights that add up to a big nothing," wrote Oleksinski.
Associated Press' Jocelyn Novek called the picture a "stylish but ultimately frustratingly half-baked spy caper" that is "made of the finest materials", but ends up "something of a head-scratcher".
However, some reviews were more positive. Owen Gleiberman of Variety called the film a "home run" and highlighted the "gem" of the script as an example of what makes the movie "a classic Ritchie caper".
"It's Ritchie's direction that makes every scene vibrate. His talent is on full display, though now it's held in perfect perspective," Gleiberman added.
The film was initially meant to be released in early 2022 but was removed from release schedules and delayed in mid-February of that year.
This was reportedly due to sensitivities around the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the war between the two countries – the villains in the movie include gangsters from Ukraine.
Later, the film's production company STX Entertainment underwent a major restructuring, which led to further delays. Lionsgate later bought the US cinema distribution rights, and the movie will be released on streaming in the UK next month.
Operation Fortune is in cinemas in the US now. It will release in the UK on Prime Video on April 7.
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