Michael's Movie Grade: B
A fun action comedy.
What I really like about many of Guy Ritche's movies is that there is often a sense that he is simply having fun making them. Because of this often times when he makes an action film that would be completely forgettable by a lesser filmmaker, he elevates it well above what it should be. The storyline of Operation Fortune is quite simplistic and doesn't differ much from the majority of action films, and there is little doubt about how it will end. Yet this movie overcomes this simply through its sense of fun. Like many of Guy Ritche's action films, this flick is full of a wonderful and wacky sense of humor. This humor comes at a fast pace and even the jokes that don't make you laugh keep up this sense of comedic momentum and add this movie's sense of fun. Yet this is not to say there are no laugh out loud moments here. There are plenty of really funny moments throughout the movie. What makes this humor work so well is that it seems to flow from the story naturally, because it comes directly out of the characters. Some of the best humor comes from the characters Orson (Jason Statham) and Sarah (Aubrey Plaza). She has a very playful and often flirtatious sense of humor and the majority of it either flies over his head or annoys him. At first this seems like it won't work, but over the course of the film it grows on you and often brings a lot of really good laughs. The movie also benefits from the type of wonderful and playful dialogue that I love about many of Guy Ritchie's films. A lot of this dialogue is quite funny and even the dialogue that isn't comedic is simply fun to listen to. The action scenes here are a lot of fun and I love the way they are shot. I especially love in one of the action scenes towards the end we see the action from Jason Statham's character's perspective often times looking at the action at the end of his gun, making this almost feel like a first person shooter video game in the best way possible. Though the storyline is quite familiar it also moves at a fast pace and the near two hours pass by quickly.
As well as having a predictable and familiar story, this movie also unfortunately has an overabundance of characters. Because of this some of the characters are quite a bit of fun, while others are really bland and boring. This does unfortunately have the effect of making certain scenes not as effective as they should be.
All and all this is just a fun movie. While it may not be my favorite Guy Ritche film, it does a great job of showing why I enjoy his work so much.
No comments:
Post a Comment