Though I sort of consider the movies in the Mission: Impossible series comedies, this Guy Ritchie frivolity is more serious about taking the piss since it comes across as a straight sendup of the current species of international espionage blockbuster. First of all, you’ve got Jason Statham in what would normally be the Tom Cruise role acting all Stathamy; meaning, more concerned with his own well-being than that the mission at hand, whose main worth to him is the cash it will put in his pocket. Cruise’s Ethan Hunt is all about altruism and saving the world, while Statham’s Orson Fortune is strictly mercenary—until, of course, other dramatic options come into play. 

Like Hunt, Fortune has a team of wildly capable experts who help him accomplish his assignments with winking acknowledgements of how farfetched they are. In fact, the setup in this case is dodgy from the get-go. A briefcase is stolen from some kind of laboratory in Odessa by a group of violent, black-clothed soldiers, and British intelligence gets wind of it. Though they have no idea what’s in the briefcase or even what’s going on in the lab, they contact Fortune to retrieve it. As it happens, he’s on holiday and can only be persuaded to take the job when informed that a competing team of operatives headed by a former acolyte is after the briefcase as well. His professional pride provoked, Fortune assembles his team and heads for the French Riviera, where billionaire arms dealer George Simonds (Hugh Grant, having a grand old time impersonating Michael Caine in bad-guy mode), seems to be trying to sell the thing. Fortune’s plan is to bring along dim movie star Danny Francesco (Josh Hartnett), of whom Simonds is a fan—shades of The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent! The only member of Fortune’s team worth the trouble of mentioning is Sara Fidel, the tech expert who wields a laptop as if it were an AK-47 and is played by Aubrey Plaza, who manages to bring the requisite lightness to dialogue that doesn’t always deliver the laughs the writers think it does. 

Most of the action is predicated on Statham’s patented battering-ram fisticuffs skills, which means, unlike in the M:I movies, there doesn’t seem to be a lot at stake, because once Statham starts delivering blows you know he’s won. The super-yacht milieu of most of these set pieces guarantees the kind of high-gloss visual extravagance that characterized British spy movies of the 60s, but without the wit. That said, Ritchie keeps his head down enough to allow the mechanics of the silly plot to work with the humor, and it’s an enjoyable ride as far as that goes. In short, I liked it better than the most recent M:I installment, but only because I’ve become bored with Tom Cruise’s show-offy movie star persona. 

Opens Oct. 13 in Tokyo at Toho Cinemas Nihonbashi (050-6868-5060), Toho Cinemas Hibiya (050-6868-5068), Toho Cinemas Shinjuku (050-6868-5063), Shibuya Humax Cinema (03-3462-2539), Toho Cinemas Roppongi Hills (050-6868-5024).

Operation Fortune home page in Japanese

photo (c) 2021 Eros STX Global Corporation