For many eons now, men have been dragged to chick flicks under protest. And for probably even more eons, women have been dragged kicking and screaming to an all guns blazing affair. So, what happens if you mix the 2 genres? You get This Means War. A movie that mixes romantic comedy and over the top action with a sprinkling of spy gadgetry. So in theory this should be an ideal date movie? After all the men get the ball breaking action and the ladies get the love interest as well as some serious eye candy in Chris Pine and Tom Hardy.
And the theory is correct. This Means War actually works, for what it is. Two best friends, who happen to work for the CIA (Pine and Hardy) end up dating the same girl (Reese Witherspoon) with hilarious and action packed consequences. A number of rules are put in place, like they can’t sleep with her and if their friendship suffers, then they stop and walk away. The 2 friends utilise every disposable spy gadget on each other during their alternating dates. And secondary to all of these Spy Vs Spy (remember them guys from Mad Magazine) antics, there is an actual job to do of apprehending the stereotypical bad guy.
It’s a bizarre all over the place story line, completely cheesy and at times incredibly unbelievable, but because of its quick pacing, multiple set pieces and plenty of laughs, an audience would certainly be willing the leave the shortcomings slide. What you can’t let slide though, is how out of place Chris Pine and particularly Tom Hardy are. Pine rocks the pretty boy look as you’d expect, but he seems to struggle with the comedy at times. And while he delivers the laughs in all the right places, it still seems a bit forced. On the other hand, Tom Hardy is tough to watch. Hardy is a fantastic actor, but comedy, here at least doesn’t suit him at all. Again, he delivers the laughs, but seems even more awkward than Pine. The British accent doesn’t fit with the movie at all and adds to the overall awkwardness, and the constant display of tattoos seems incredibly distracting. At times he looks like the Hulk wandering around the place, ready to explode. Its an incredibly restrained and awkward performance. On the other hand, Reese Witherspoon is convincing and seems to spend most of the movie with her incredibly long legs on display.
All those quips aside though, McG delivers on the pacing and set pieces, albeit everything seems a little bit too short. All of the action sequences would have benefitted from a bit more screen time. And at times, the movie seems to struggle between an adult orientated flick to something that is trying to please the younger audiences as well. It’s balls are well hidden and on the rare occasion that the movie flexes it’s adult orientated muscles, they are quickly put away.
Overall though, The Means War, even with its numerous shortcomings is quite watchable and highly entertaining at times. It’s certainly an ideal date movie, and works well as a no brainer, pointless pop corn flick.
