Super spy Orson Fortune (Jason Statham) and his team are on a mission to stop an arms dealer selling a dangerous item in Guy Ritchie’s latest. 

Guy Ritchie is a writer/director with a very particular style that can hit (Lock, Stock…, Snatch, Sherlock, The Man From U.N.C.L.E.) as often as he can miss (Revolver, Swept Away, King Arthur, Wrath of Man). I can safely say straight out of the gates that Operation Fortune is a miss. As the credits rolled I described it as “aggressively ok”. 

The main issue is that it is not even close to the sum of its parts and it feels a little incoherent in terms of the characters roles and plot. 

So the plot has government figures played by Cary Elwes and Eddie Marsan bring the team together and provide exposition. Marsan comes out of this worse as he simply sits in offices not interacting with the spy team. Elwes at least gets to play dead pan sarcasm alongside our action heroes. 

Once we establish the MacGuffin of a mysterious arms deal we are introduced to the team. 

Statham is everything you expect from Statham. He is foul mouthed, blunt and supremely capable in the action stakes. For some reason his character is suffering from mental health issues and likes expensive wine. Rapper Bugzy Malone is a mostly silent and incredibly capable sidekick who is good with a sniper rifle and Aubrey Plaza is a tech wizard who is also extremely capable at everything. 

And then we have the villain. Hugh Grant is hugely enjoyable as the verbose and witty arms dealer. An evil version of his Paddington 2 villain who very clearly has a dirty mind. This villain has a huge passion for movie star played by Josh Hartnett and so of course the team hire him to help them with their operation to get inside the villains plans. 

The plot is clunky at times and unbelievable throughout. The addition of the movie star seems superfluous and an example of Ritchie trying to revive an ailing star’s career like a Tarantino movie would. But Hartnett barely makes a dent. Then we have the politically bad timing of having non-descript but evil Ukrainians be the villains behind the villain. Whilst each actor seems to almost be in a different film. 

The absolute best facet of the film are Hugh Grant and Aubrey Plaza’s performances. Grant has had a bit of a renaissance of late and this is a film stealing performance. Whilst Plaza is doing something peculiar in a different way by playing to her comedy strengths. Both seem completely out of place, but it is fun. 

If you want a good Ritchie spy movie you can watch The Man From U.N.C.L.E.