Ruse of War’ – Rolling Stone

Dan Smith/Lionsgate

Quick question: have you seen The man from UNCLE?

We’re not talking about the popular 1960s TV show, in which Robert Vaughn and David McCallum rode the era’s spy wave and brought a big Bond-esque adventure to the small screen every week. We’re talking about the 2015 movie that wanted to replicate the show’s vintage spy vs. spy mojo, pairing Henry’s “Dude Cocks His Arms Like Shotguns!” Cavill and another man whose name currently eludes us as Next-Gen Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin, respectively. Alicia Vikander and Elizabeth Debicki added complementary moxie and glamour. For something based on a boomer-nostalgia title and designed by nature to be cash-in, this late summer trifle was breezy, fun, and surprisingly great. The director? Guy Ritchie.

But not the “Guy Ritchie” you think of, i.e. the filmmaker who gave us lock, reserve and two smoking barrels and burst onto the 90s indie-import scene as a kind of alt-Tarantino cockney. This version of Ritchie proved a number of stories involving guys and guns, slang and irony, before he finally embarked on a side career as a gunslinger. studio for rent. He was still making quirky crime films, though these were now more diminishing returns offerings than dazzling showcases. But Ritchie was also responsible for those steampunk Sherlock Holmes blockbusters starring Robert Downey Jr. and live action. Aladdin. They are quite functional. Her UNCLE man, however, suggested that with the right hardware, his one for them might be far more satisfying than his one for me.

Operation Fortune: Cunning War – the title comes out of your language, doesn’t it? – want to be UNCLE that bad. You can practically feel it yearning for that same nerdy charm, the almost flippant sense of old-school cool involving dapper tuxedos, fancy yachts, twirling megalomaniacs and saving the world at the last possible second. He’s not afraid to throw in a little Bourne-style action, especially since there’s brutal British brawler Jason Statham on board to clench his fists and throw elbows, or add some movie flavor. steering wheel to goose the sets of the jet-set, either. We should apologize, because we make it look cooler than it is. It’s not the worst imitation Bond knockoff you’ll ever see; there are far worse offenders in this category. But Operation Fortune does not render Ritchie, his collaborators (he co-wrote the screenplay with Ivan Atkinson and Marn Davies), or his cast any favor.

What if Statham and Ritchie – who helped boost each other’s careers from the very start and continued to work together through 2021 man’s anger – believe there is a candor to be had in the continuing adventures of international mystery man Orson Fortune, know that we are on our knees, begging you to reconsider. Fortune is an agent for a top-notch British intelligence group that falls somewhere between black ops and, say, charcoal gray ops. A highly classified and extremely dangerous item known only as “the handle” has been stolen in Johannesburg. His boss (Cary Elwes) wants him back right away. Fortune’s teammates are: JJ Davis (grime music legend Bugzy Malone), a utility player who specializes in “coms, guns, driving, diving, rapping, slapping, etc.” » ; and Sarah Fidel (Aubrey Plaza), an American computer expert brought in to replace an old cohort (Peter Ferdinando) who has gone rogue. Who, it should be mentioned, is also after the MIA article and has his own band of mercenaries to back him up.

Nobody knows exactly what the handle is, just that someone is going to sell it to the highest billionaire bidder. This means that Fortune and his friends must come to terms with Greg Simmonds (Hugh Grant), a world-renowned arms dealer and the man brokering this deal on the black market. The key to entering his world, you ask? Meet Danny Francesco (Josh Hartnett), movie star extraordinaire. Simmonds is a super fan, so Statham works his way up to become the manager of this DiCaprio 2.0, and that invites everyone into the inner circle, which means they can eventually find out… (yaaawwwnnnn) Sorry, we’re even bored just remembering all of this right now.

It’s not that we’ve seen it all before, although we certainly have. It’s more like Operation Fortune: How How Etc. can’t settle on a rhythm or a tone to tie it all together, or bring together the sound and the fury and the fun and the action to animate this East On the screen. Questionable decisions abound: Statham’s character is, we’re told, prone to a host of neuroses and phobias, none of which come into play. The only upside is that it forces him to ask for lots of bottles of wine dear, what… is this some kind of scam? Or was it a way to add “character” to his character? We know the actor can nail a fight scene (see: Jason Statham’s Entire Filmography), but when he fights with indistinguishable thugs, the sequences are over before they begin. Maybe Hartnett was worried about offending some real A-listers, but he doesn’t seem to be having fun with what’s essentially a license to throw tons of shade. Grant is having fun playing the middle ground between sleazy ultra-rich and skeezy ultra-rich – except his whole shtick looks way too much like a revival of his role in Ritchie’s Gentlemenonly in the middle of better scenery.

Unsurprisingly, the only person here who seems to have partially understood the mission was Aubrey Plaza. Her apparent goal: to be Aubrey Plaza in a cheap spy comedy thriller. (That last hyphenated word should technically be in scary quotes.) Mission: possible – and accomplished. There’s the deadpan wit, the tense smile trotted out for creeps and goons, some cruising around in fancy dresses and clothes that look like a dry race for her. white lotus relay, and an innate intelligence accompanied by a general atmosphere. When she’s given a gun and Ritchie films her in a fishtail muscle car, tightly framed and firing bullets, you can totally see why Aubrey Plaza: Action Hero could be a nice addition to her resume. Give the woman her own spy series. Pair her with Cavill and Vikander for a UNCLE following. Make Plaza the new Bond, you cowards. Just stop messing her up by sticking her in disposable nonsense like that.

It might be easier to dismiss all of this if it weren’t for the Ritchie factor – it’s not a hack, even though his rock star author days are behind him and, as Gentlemen proved, this formula he developed in the 90s has not aged well. There are tiny glimpses of someone having real chops behind the camera, almost but not enough to make you think that, with more time and focus, he could have done anything with those spare parts. Or maybe, just maybe, it was all shoddy Operation is designed to make his work older, perhaps less important, more beautiful. To come back, To tear out. All is forgiven.