Starring: Reese Witherspoon, Chris Pine, Tom Hardy, Chelsea Handler, and Til Schweiger
Guys, it's Valentine's Day weekend, and you're looking for that right movie that can please you and your significant other. It needs to be action-packed, funny, and somehow romantic. That’s a tall order though. Having some badass action sequences for you and some heartfelt, raw emotional scenes for the ladies is a challenging task for any movie. No one film can do all of that. You all know that. You're just really hoping that a good movie gets your night started off right so that your V-Day weekend ends just right. Well, I've got the right movie for you if you've got a few glasses of Cabernet Sauvignon in your system. Check out McG's This Means War. This romantic action comedy delivers the goods.
FDR (Chris Pine) and Tuck (Tom Hardy) are two CIA agents and lifelong best friends. FDR is a playboy, while Tuck is a thirty-something single dad. After a mission that goes awry during which they publicly execute the brother of the deadly criminal Heinrich (Til Schweiger), the two partners are benched by their boss Collins (Angela Bassett). While on the bench in Los Angeles, they both get back into the dating game. Tuck goes online, while FDR takes the old-fashioned route of trying to pick up lonely chicks renting movies. Interestingly enough, the two friends end up dating the same girl — Lauren Scott (Reese Witherspoon). Once they find out that they're both seeing her, the fun really begins. They each employ every tactic and government resource they can to win Lauren over. Meanwhile, Heinrich seeks revenge for the murder of his brother and has come to California to take out his nemeses.
I really enjoyed This Means War. It's a fun light-hearted comedy that gets the job done for V-Day weekend. It delivers some romance and a great deal of bromance. Chris Pine is absolutely hilarious as FDR. I couldn't get enough of him. He clearly is the standout amongst the cast. Tom Hardy brings his A-game as well as the sensitive Tuck. Except for a serious game of paintball, he can’t be the badass he normally is on the big screen. Finally, Reese Witherspoon is in her element playing the airheaded Lauren Scott. With the help of the trash talking Chelsea Handler, she does exactly what she does best in comedies — charm female moviegoers. All in all, director McG and the cast give us a really entertaining flick with plenty of ass-kicking, loads of comedy, and a dash of romance.
I do have to deduct some points from the rating for the movie though. I do have a couple of gripes with This Means War. For a romantic action comedy that puts its emphasis on the laughs, a few jokes fell short early in the movie. The one I really have to call out is Reese Witherspoon's dancing to "This Is How We Do It" by Montell Jordan. Though she is jamming pretty hard, this is not how we do it. Aside from a few bad jokes, the big elephant in the room is the blatant misuse of all those lovely spy toys throughout the movie. How the hell are these guys using all these government resources to help them get lucky (or not)? Somebody in the CIA has got to be paying attention to what they're doing and what they're not doing — their jobs. Screenwriters Simon Kinberg and Timothy Dowling really drop the ball here.
Because This Means War is so damn enjoyable, I can forgive these issues. A few glasses of wine will help solve any problems I've got with the movie. I laughed so hard during this flick that I got a little teary-eyed. It's got a little bit of everything. This fun, quirky movie delivers great action sequences, lots of laughs, and charming performances from its stars. This Means War gets a 0.06% rating.
