MovieChat Forums > Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre (2023) Discussion > Hugh Grant Channels Michael Caine in Thi...

Hugh Grant Channels Michael Caine in This

posted 8 months ago by roger1 (2543)
4 replies | jump to latest

Its been interesting watching Hugh Grant age into a rather more interesting "older male star" than he was back in the 90s and 00's, when he kept stuttering and blinking his eyes and over-doing the whole "jittery Brit" cutesie-pie routine.

Operation Fortune is his second(?) movie with Guy Ritchie after "The Gentlemen" and yet again, Grant has aged into a tougher, more wry and distinctly more manly version of the twit he based his young career upon.

Grant first debuted this "older character star" version of his persona in the very good movie of "The Man From UNCLE" some years ago. He's just about reinvented himself in less than a decade and...

...on the evidence of Operation Fortune, he is ready for a few more decades of stardom because...

...he is ready to take over for Michael Caine.

Mr. Caine had a great run from 1964 to almost the present(he is now 90, I believe.) But he will have to step down sometime soon and...Hugh Grant is ready to BE Michael Caine.

I swear he uses Mr. Caine's actual VOICE(an impression) all through Operation Fortune which at once allows Grant to be most entertaining here as an "in joke" of a character but which also set him up for a hearty Michael Caine-ish career that could last at least a couple more decades if Grant lives to 90.

Its a pretty good impression, irregardless.

[–] Aries (776) 6 months ago

Just watched this and came here to see if anyone else thought the same thing.

HG sounded like he was playing Michael Caine playing the character lol.

Not a bad movie but nothing special either. Nearly every scene was something we've already seen in other movies. Don't get all the Aubrey Plaza hype either.

6.5/10 for me

[–] AviAAksenazi (574) 6 months ago

I hated Hugh Grant back in the days but he has aged like fine wine.

[–] roger1 (2543) 6 months ago

Not a bad movie but nothing special either. Nearly every scene was something we've already seen in other movies.

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Yeah. As always with these things, some names in the cast helped...and Ritchie does have his style.

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Don't get all the Aubrey Plaza hype either.

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It is what it is, I guess. These things happen. She perfected a "deadpan comedy character" on Parks and Recreation on TV, then did some R-rated movie comedies with an 'outrageous slut" character (no nudity) in "Bad Grandpa"(or was it Dirty Grandpa?) seeking sex with Old Robert DeNiro and in that "Wedding Dates" movie and -- having established her comedy and sexual persona -- branched into drama. Now she brings the whole package(with a bit less sex) in movies like this one. Her baggy-eyed beauty is there now, too, touched up with "major star" make-up.

[–] roger1 (2543) 6 months ago

I hated Hugh Grant back in the days but he has aged like fine wine.

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Yes. I now find his early stuff (like "Four Weddings and Funeral") practically unwatchable, though I suppose some of his facial tics and stammering were "British humor" not aimed at the Yank sensibility.

I can't name them now, but quite a few dull or irritating young male actors seem to have aged to middle-aged macho over the years. Daddy Martin Sheen comes to mind, maybe.