Review: This Means War

This Means War

• Starring: Reese Witherspoon (Legally Blonde), Chris Pine (Star Trek), and Tom Hardy (Warrior)
• Directed by: McG
• Synopsis: “The world’s deadliest CIA operatives are inseparable partners and best friends until they fall for the same woman. Having once helped bring down entire enemy nations, they are now employing their incomparable skills and an endless array of high-tech gadgetry against their greatest nemesis ever – each other.” (collider)
• Rated: PG-13 for some sexual content and language (originally rated R)
• Trailer:

Bugs Bunny said it best: “Of course you realize, this means war!”

Who would’ve guessed that introducing Elle Woods from Legally Blonde, Captain James T. Kirk from 2009’s Star Trek, and Eames from Inception together would have amounted to a fun film such as this? Apparently, director McG (Terminator Salvation, Charlie’s Angels, NBC’s Chuck) did and he did it in a fun way.

Starting off with a bang…literally, This Means War starts off with all the excitement and promise of a James Bond/Mission Impossible film with the two best friends and partners Tuck (Hardy) and FDR (Pine) dressed in standard Bond-issue tuxedos and brandishing side-arms that seem to never miss their mark. Confident and unaccustomed to being bested by any enemy, these two are suddenly stopped in their tracks when one Lauren S. (Witherspoon) enters the picture.

Lauren: Single and successful. Gorgeous and looking for “Mr. Right.” She ends up dating both of them without knowledge of their connection to each other…and without their knowledge of the other man’s involvement. But spies being spies…information begins to leak and thus the movie’s main plot is born.

Ah, the classic “Spy vs. Spy!” Impressively, both Tuck and FDR utilize all of their training, skills, and resources in hilarious recon, seek and destroy missions, and infiltration/covert outings…only each of their respective focuses are on the moves of the other spy and Lauren under the pretense of national security.

Paintball battles, first date “firsts”, and bad advice-giving friends, surround this hilariously unintentional love triangle of a film but it is loads of fun once you get past the beginning and get straight to the story that counts. This film tries to implement too much with an unnecessary story line of a dangerous international villain that remains on the C.I.A’s top bad guy list. Consequently, feeling the need to tie the film together in this manner, This Means War suffers and goes from being a semi-believable fun rom-com action type film to a “Nope, that would never happen” kind of a film.

BUT…it’s still fun and not all that bad. You will laugh quite a bit. And Chris Pine and Tom Hardy really work well together on screen and make up for the sub-par aspects of this post-Valentine’s Day fun flick. I look forward to more films starring these two Hollywood stars.

(According to IMDB Bradley Cooper James Franco Sam Worthington, Colin Farrell, Justin Timberlake and Seth Rogen all were either considered for or offered the lead roles, but the roles eventually went to Chris Pine and Tom Hardy. A very wise choice.)

Predictable to the very end. I’ll be interested in if you can pick who gets the girl in the end? 

This Means War: An action-filled romantic comedy full of over the top action, beautiful people, and enjoyable laughs. Girls will love it, guys will like it (don’t worry guys, it’s okay to be dragged to this one!) 😀

Thanks for reading! Happy Watching!

Score:  2.5 out of 5 stars for This Means War

–T, The Focused Filmographer