Review: This Means War

Movie: This Means War

Genre: RomCom (Romantic Comedy)/ Spy Film

Director: McG (Charlie’s Angels, Terminator Salvation)

Main Cast:

Reese Witherspoon (Legally Blonde, Sweet Home Alabama)

Chris Pine (Star Trek, Unstoppable)

Tom Hardy (RocknRolla, Inception, Bronson)

Budget: $ 65 Million

Gross: $ 152 Million

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I should probably be doing more of this, but for some reasons, a movie has to strike me in a certain manner for it to warrant me writing a review on it.  Ladies and gentlemen, This Means War is one such movie…

As with all romantic comedies, where it’s boy vs boy to win the heart of the lady in question, the two contesting boys or men in this case are quite the opposite in terms of character and  appeal, more so to give the audience the emotional tussle of choosing one to root for i.e engage you 🙂

FDR (Chris Pine) and Tuck (Tom Hardy) are best buddies, like brothers to the point that they sit right opposite each other at work and are always partnered when it comes to work assignments.  Oh yea, speaking of which, they are highly trained and skilled CIA agents…  The beginning of the movie starts of well and believable, we clearly see that FDR is the reckless and womanizing of the two, while Tuck is the focused, sensible and ‘safe’ one.  If you watched Chris Pine take on the lead role of James T. Kirk in the 2009 remake of Star Trek, then you already have a pretty good idea of what to expect from him, cause Chris’ earlier portrayal of James in that film matches his role in This Means War (although he was more grounded in Star Trek)…

Back to my review, the two take on an assignment in Hong Kong which goes wrong and has them on the wanted list by some mean sinister looking Russian bad guy who vows to have them killed for killing his brother during that botched mission.  The plot point comes in with the angle that Tuck, wants to find some one special to share his life with because his ex-wife and kid don’t know he is a secret agent, in short he is a lonely divorcee.  FDR on the other hand scoffs at such a notion, afterall, he is the womanizer…

Enter Reese Witherspoon’s character, Lauren Scott, an executive who has no romantic life and desperately wants to find someone so as to get over the fact that her ex-boyfriend is engaged.  To cut a long story short, Tuck and Lauren end up being paired together for a date by some online dating agency, and right after their date, FDR on his usual ‘prowl’ bumps into Lauren and the tussle begins when she starts dating both men without knowing they know each other, further confusing herself by letting herself get mixed up with a ‘selfish bad boy’ and a ‘safe Briton’, THEN both men find out she’s dating both of them and decide to not let her know and let the best man win…

Pros: Well, it’s a watch able movie and it has made  more than double its budget at the Box Office so far and thats just about it.  The opening scene and sequences are pretty good, but after that…

Cons: It’s hard to tell whether or not this movie is a romantic or spy flick.  As i keep on saying, it’s pretty believable that FDR and Tuck are CIA operatives in the beginning, but after they start wrestling for the same girl using CIA equipment and personnel to spy on each other, thwart each other’s plans and learn more about the lady, you start to really NOT believe the CIA angle… Secondly, alot of plot-holes for example; characters who promise to hold certain significance just disappear.  In short, the whole flick comes out as confusing, stale and just the same old same old.  Chris Pine and Tom Hardy probably just did this flick for fun, just to remind everybody they are out there and well, let’s waste some time shall we?  The only engaging thing in this movie to me was the whole “we are brothers” theme between FDR and Tuck, and actually trying to figure out who would win the lady’s affections and maybe, just maybe rooting for one of the two…

At some point, we are brought back to the underlining sub-plot, the Russian dude who is after the two agents (who seem to get away with abusing company equipment and personnel without ANY repercussions) and is able to track them down just as Lauren is about to reveal her preferred choice…

The movie ends on a ‘happy’ note, but not before three complications (who will she choose? will she find out they know each other? Russian bad guy?)collide in a climax that wraps up the feel of the entire movie—> No serious interest, creativity was injected into it from the start.

Rating: 2/5

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oleuD8479uM]

I look forward to seeing Tom Hardy later on in July as he plays Bane in The Dark Knight Rises …