“This Means War”: Riot of a Spy Movie

It’s rare that a love triangle / action movie / buddy movie  works, and it’s usually because the writers have a hard time combining both genres. Surprisingly, “This Means War” is an exception, forcing you to laugh hard and then chuckle at yourself.

The premise is simple enough, and the plot itself is skeletal: two spies, best buddies who’d take a bullet for each other, start dating the same girl, albeit not purposely. The blooming relationship drives a wedge between them, and their competitiveness gets the better of each of them. This is when they start appropriating government resources to keep one eye on each other, and one eye on the girl. Oh, and there’s also a bad guy who’s out for reenge against them for dropping his brother off the roof of s skyscraper.

FDR (Chris Pine) and Tuck (Tom Hardy) show great chemistry as the CIA buds who have this wedge of blond cnsumer product tester named Lauren (Reese Witherspoon) driven between them. There ae the token signs of their familiarity with each other (Pine always has an extra clip as Hardy always forgets to bring spares).

Lauren followed the man of her dreams, only to watch him get engaged to somebody else, and can’t get over it. Her strings are being pulled by her friend Trish (Chelsea Handler), who keeps pushing her to be more daring because her own life is boring as hell. Trish even cnstructs a fake account on a social networking site t get Lauren dates, and tuck bites. Lauren obliges, but almost regrets it.

Naturally, you’d expect the situations t be iuageous and oer the top. Thankfully, director McG has gotten over the music video infatuation he used to helm the first Charlie’s Angels film, and shows some restraint. Still, the spies get their comeuppance when they eavesdrop on Lauren’s conversations with Trish. The results always up the ante to the next laughable situation they find themselves in. The cmedy comes frm finding outnthings they later realize the didn’t want to know. After all, covert surveillance doesn’t filter anything out, does it?

Of course, if budget was not an issue and you owned your time, this would be plausible. Still, if you go along for the ride, you’ll be satisfied.

Wait, that didn’t sound right.

The situation asks two questions: who gets the girl and what happens to their friendship? And oh yeah, what about the villain Heinrich (Til Schweiger)?

At the end of the day, “This Means War” redefines the action / comedy. And you’ll learn the new meaning of “entering the premises” and “British invasion”. 

If I told you any more, I’d have to kill you.