Operation Fortune

I love Guy Ritchie's Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch. I've seen both of those films so often I've memorized the dialogue in each. And ever since 2000 I've been waiting for Ritchie to return to form.

I'm still waiting.

Now, as a supposed artist myself, I understand the importance of evolving and reinventing oneself, to not get trapped reproducing the hits. It's critical to grow, I get it. Ritchie's had twelve feature films worth of growth since Snatch, and he's only moved further away from what made his first two so special. I'm not holding my breath for this year's The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, though I'm sure it'll be a fun film. It just won't have that O.G. Ritchie je ne sais quoi—heavy emphasis on the G.

Operation Fortune was fine. Plaza, Statham, and Grant turn in excellent performances, even if Grant struggles to break free from the mould he cast for himself in 2019's The Gentlemen, and Statham—especially after my recent viewing of The Beekeper—seems to find himself in roles that reduce him to little more than a conveyance for violence. The film is a servicable, fast-paced, "our team is smarter than yours" story generously drenched in lavish production value. And maybe that's the problem. Ritchie could be well served to go back to making movies with million-dollar budgets, just so we could get a bit more of that grime and grain that made him famous in the first place.

2023.04.09 – 2024.02.07

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