Joseph McGinty Nichol (AKA McG) single handedly destroyed any chance we had of seeing a re-booted Terminator franchise with his awful handling of Terminator Salvation. Now he’s about to assault our cinema screens with an action rom-com starring non other than Reese Witherspoon – who I’ll never forgive for making us endure Legally Blonde, though to be honest I mostly don’t like her because I keep thinking she’s Renée Zellweger – and as such, I offered up the screening of This Means War to any of my reviewers who were dumb enough to accept. Surprisingly they all wanted to go see it. Even more surprisingly, I had accidently sent an email to my wife in case she wanted to go see it, and she did. All my other reviews would be spared the total annihilation of an evening by the incapable McG, I however was just going to have to grin a bear it.
Or so I thought.
This Means War did however have a bright spot, and possibly what I thought would be the film’s only hope at salvation: Handsome Bob. Of course Tom Hardy wouldn’t be reprising his RocknRolla character for McG, rather he was going to be an undercover CIA operative in a type of buddy film, where the buddies end up fighting each other over a girl.
The film kicks of in total McG style, with an over the top action scene that has you believing This Means War is going to be another sad failure on McG’s resume. But no, this is just a red herring, a little misdirection as the CIA’s two golden boys royally stuff things up and find themselves on desk duty for the foreseeable future.
With nothing else to do, these long time buddies start bemoaning their lack of female companions until one night Tuck (Tom Hardy) decides to sign up to and online dating site, the same time as Lauren’s (Reese Witherspoon) best friend signs her up. The two of course find each other online and decide to meet for coffee. After a successful first ‘date’ they go their separate ways and Lauren bumps into Tuck’s best mate FDR (Chris Pine). Whilst Lauren brushes him off, FDR is as smitten with her as Tuck is and sets out to woo her.
Later at work Tuck is bragging about his new girl, and FDR joins in, and they both agree to show each other photos – turns out they are both dating Lauren. After the initial shock, they decide on a gentleman’s agreement not to tell Lauren and not to get in each other’s way, and may the best man win. Of course, with both of them having access to the CIA’s massive surveillance capabilities, neither has any intention of being gentlemanly about it.
And this is where the fun kicks in.
I could say that the combined efforts of Director McG and writer Simon Kinberg (who wrote the similar Mr. & Mrs Smith along with odd couple buddy film Sherlock Holmes) came together to create an action orientated, laugh out loud rom-com, but really it has more to do with Tom Hardy and Chris Pine and the energy they create together.
Scratch too deep with This Means War and you’ll find a pretty shallow film. But sit back just for a second and you’ll soon be enjoying yourself so much, you’ll not even notice how cheesy the film is in places, or how predictable the plot is. You’ll be having too much fun enjoying the film for what it is; one of the funniest, action packed rom-coms you’ll see this year. FILMGUIDE rating: Reviewed by: Jonathan Read
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