Just when Orson Fortune thinks of catching a break, there’s a mysterious robbery of a deadly new weapons technology and so a reluctant Orson is back to business. Known for his high maintenance and little regard for the administrative protocol, Fortune goes to work with an unconventional plan and a slick team of covert operatives, who know how to outsmart the enemy. In them is a tech-savvy femme fatale Sarah (Aubrey Plaza) and a handsome young agent named JJ (Bugzy Malone). They report into Nathan (Cary Elwes) - their sly recruiter, who is betting big on this team to deliver the goods. They rope in one of Hollywood’s biggest superstars Danny Francesco (Josh Hartnett) to stop billionaire arms broker Greg Simmonds (Hugh Grant) from facilitating an multi-billion dollar arms deal that can throw the world’s financial system into disarray. It’s a plot that has Guy Ritchie written all over it and so is the execution - a globe-trotting adventure that oftentimes seems like it’s simply just showing off its ability to jet-set across the globe. It’s a regular “world needs to be saved” premise that has all the elements of thrill and urgency but the writing doesn’t do enough justice to the bold and grand setup. The screenplay is needlessly verbose, less action packed and barely novel, but it stays harmlessly dark and comedic in equal parts. To a large extent, performances make up for the lacunae in writing. We have seen Jason Statham being in far more precarious situations and brilliantly tackling them, so the expectation from a film headlined by him is anyway sky high. Here, he is given the setup and the actor gets into his element eventually, especially towards the climax when the plot maxes out with tension and thrill. Here is where Statham’s action reaches a fever pitch too. Aubrey Plaza shines in her role of a hotshot tech wizard Sarah, who knows how to play her cards right in a male-dominated world. Josh Hartnett is a hoot playing the slightly goofy and gullible superstar, who plays along quite well with Orson’s deadly plan. But the one who clearly has the most fun playing his part, is Hugh Grant. The English actor makes the most of his larger than life character of Greg Simmonds, who does all the wrong things, the right way. The film’s screenplay is the strongest when Grant is on screen. Guy Ritchie’s grand film is visually rich and unabashedly pompous. It’s the kind that merits a big screen experience. Overall, ‘Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre’ is quite formulaic and the makers clearly focus more on entertaining the audience over anything else. But much like Fortune’s mission, this one too is a bit of a hit or a miss.Read more