Movie Review: This Means War

“This Means War” is a peculiar amalgam. It takes elements from the chick flick, the bromance and the action film and molds them into one. The result is clever action-hero antics propelled by love. Yet the question of who is in love with who is one the film doesn’t seem to answer.

Dangerous and dapper CIA men FDR (Chris Pine) and Tuck (Tom Hardy) fall for the same foxy lady, Lauren (Reese Witherspoon). Tuck meets Lauren on an online dating site, and FDR meets Lauren in a video store moments after Tuck’s date.

Once the two realize they are both smitten with the same woman, neither will relinquish their grip. They decide to enter into a “gentleman’s agreement,” accepting only to pursue Lauren if she does not get in the way of their friendship, while simultaneously initiating an all-out campaign against each other.

Director McG (“Terminator Salvation,” “We Are Marshall”) paces his film proficiently. His skills in managing narrative time and frame space are quite adept, and his scenes are well constructed, not meandering off of their course.

Though the script is smart — written by Timothy Dowling, Simon Kinberg and Marcus Gautesen — it’s the film’s stellar editing and making full use of cuts to black that strings it together.

While FDR and Tuck are battling for Lauren’s attention by taking her out on exotic dates to empty circuses and paintballing, they are also being stalked by the quintessential foreign bad guy.

At the beginning of the film the duo are tasked with taking out the Heinrich brothers. Yet they only manage to kill one, leaving the remaining one (Til Schweiger) to track down of the two, seeking revenge.

Heinrich’s presence is mainly a silly plot device, as he is not menacing and has virtually no lines of dialogue.

Because this is a romantic film, the action in it is submissive to the romance. It’s often plugged into scenes as an afterthought.

Yet there is no doubt Hardy and Pine play well off of each other, with their comedic timing and subtleties spot on, and if it weren’t for Witherspoon, the two could settle into their homosexual relationship quibble-free.

Alas, they settle on fighting for Lauren by bugging her house, stalking each other whilst on dates and assigning other agents to a Lauren task force.

The film is by no means boring, there is a strip club fight scene after all, regardless if it is devoid of strippers or not. But there isn’t as much gunplay as there should be. So, as almost a substitute, Lauren’s loud-mouthed, drunken friend, Trish (Chelsea Handler), fires off irreverent advice about which man to choose.

Since there is not only one onscreen relationship, but two, there has to be two breakup scenes as well. And the unavoidable “what we had is over,” speech is not exempt, as FDR and Tuck give it to each other.

Though only one of the agents ends up with Lauren, either “This Means War” could have turned into an awkward threesome flick, their back-and-forth banter and constant self-elevation are what make the sexually repressive duo worth watching.

mouthed, drunken friend, Trish (Chelsea Handler), fires off irreverent advice about which man to choose.

Since there is not only one onscreen relationship, but two, there has to be two breakup scenes as well. And the unavoidable “what we had is over,” speech is not exempt, as FDR and Tuck give it to each other.

Though only one of the agents ends up with Lauren, either “This Means War” could have turned into an awkward threesome flick, their back-and-forth banter and constant self-elevation are what make the sexually repressive duo worth watching.

 

 

Posted by Nick Widener on Mar 1 2012. Filed under A&E, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.