Let’s Watch: Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre (2023)
“Spend a little time with me. Fondle my balls. Whatever.”
The Film We Watched:
“Slow down, Danny Francesco, you are driving me into my dreams.”
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Kev’s next pick for 2026 brings us the Bad Movie Night debut of Hugh Grant…
What They Say This Movie Is About:
Tasked with stopping the illegal sale of a terrifying new weapon, super spy Orson Fortune joins an elite team to take out their mark. Orson must learn to work with other operatives if he is to succeed and save the world from certain destruction.
What This Movie Is Actually About:
Aubrey Plaza hams it up on the silver screen for almost two hours while bad guys are repeatedly attacked in the crotch.
Why This Movie Is Actually Good:
Did you see what I wrote on what the movie is actually about? I think that covers it, to be honest. Aubrey’s great. Kudos for Guy Ritchie letting her cut loose just enough.
Plot Points By Point, With The Gang:
We got ourselves some kind of spy movie here, so of course there’s eastern European mobsters (this batch is from Ukraine) involved in the plot. They’ve stolen a device called “The Handle” from a secret military site. Hired by the British Government to retrieve “Handle, The”, Nathan Jasmine (Cary Elwes) is sent to, well, retrieve it before some arms dealer named Greg (Hugh Grant) can sell it.
Nathan hires a crack team of folks to help him intercept it. We’ve got MI6’s super spy, ̶J̶a̶m̶e̶s̶ ̶B̶o̶n̶d̶ Orson Fortune (Jason Statham).
We’ve got a CIA hacker named Sarah (Aubrey Plaza).
We’ve got a special forces sniper named JJ (Bugzy Malone). The quartet head off to Madrid, looking for a courier who apparently has a WD My Passport external hard drive that has the data from “The Handle”. In spy movie fashion, there’s a rival dude named Mike who’s also been hired to retrieve “Handle, The”.
As it turns out, Greg’s hosting a gala in Cannes, so Nathan’s team decides to infiltrate that by…blackmailing an actor named ✨Danny Francesco✨ (Josh Hartnett).
And they say his name a lot in this film. Like, a lot lot. Sarah pretends to be the arm candy of ✨Danny Francesco✨, and Orson Fortune pretends to be the manager of ✨Danny Francesco✨. By attending the gala, they find out more information about that Handle thing, like who the top buyer is.
Greg’s having such a good time with Danny Francesco that he invites ✨Danny Francesco✨ and Sarah to spend some time in his Turkish villa. Eventually, Nathan’s team discovers that “tHe HaNdLe” is an AI that can be programmed to beat any security system.
And it turns out that the top buyer is actually two bio-tech bros who want to cause the world economy to asplode and then dominate whatever’s left with their hoarded gold.
How will the buy go down? Will the tech-bros get what they want with that AI? How much longer will Sarah pretend to be arm candy? And can the film say ✨Danny Francesco✨ at least twenty more times before the credits roll? You’ll have to watch to find out.
Should You Watch This Film?
It’s really something seeing Hugh Grant try to be “sort of” a villain, especially when Cary Elwes is right there and could easily play a real dastardly man. Still, Aubrey Plaza shines bright amidst whatever this spy film is trying to be, so if you like Aubrey and don’t mind a bit of Jason Statham’s trademark low cockney voice, this movie is worth a watch.
Best Out Of Context Riff Of The Night:
