This Means War is a 2012 romantic comedy action film directed by McG. The film stars Reese Witherspoon, Chris Pine and Tom Hardy as victims of a love triangle in which two CIA agents and best friends (Pine and Hardy) discover that they are dating the same woman (Witherspoon).
The movie has an interesting plot. CIA agents and best friends FDR Foster (Chris Pine) and Tuck Henson (Tom Hardy) are deployed to Hong Kong to prevent international criminal Heinrich from acquiring a weapon of mass destruction, but the mission goes awry, resulting in the death of Heinrich's brother Jonas and Heinrich swearing revenge against them. For their protection, their boss, Collins (Angela Bassett), assigns them to desk duty upon returning to America.
FDR is a womanizer, whose cover is that he's a cruise ship captain, while Tuck, who presents himself as a travel agent, has an ex-wife, Katie (Abigail Spencer), and a son, Joe (John Paul Ruttan). After seeing a commercial for online dating, Tuck decides to sign himself up and is paired with Lauren Scott (Reese Witherspoon), a product testing executive who's dealing with the recent engagement of her ex-boyfriend. Her best friend, Trish (Chelsea Handler), has signed her up for the same online dating site. FDR insists on being Tuck's backup for the date and hides nearby, but Tuck and Lauren hit it off.
Shortly thereafter, FDR runs into Lauren at a video store and tries to flirt with her, not knowing she's Tuck's date, but she notices that he's a ladies' man and ignores him. Intrigued, FDR crashes into one of Lauren's test groups and persuades her to go on a date with him, where they also enjoy themselves. Lauren feels guilty about dating two men at the same time, but is persuaded by Trish to make the best of the situation.
FDR and Tuck soon discover that they're seeing the same woman and decide not to tell her that they know each other, to interfere with each others' dates, nor have sex with her and let her make a decision between them. However, they soon break their rules and use CIA technology to spy on her and discover her preferences, as well as try to sabotage one another. FDR and Lauren eventually have sex, and Tuck and Lauren nearly do as well, before Lauren interrupts it, feeling bad about herself.
One day, Lauren invites Tuck to lunch, while FDR discovers that Heinrich has come to America to get revenge against them. He interrupts Lauren's date with Tuck to warn him, but Tuck doesn't believe him and they get into a fight, during which Lauren discovers that they're friends and decides to leave alone with Trish. At that moment, they are captured by Heinrich and his men, who are pursued by FDR and Tuck.
FDR and Tuck rescue Lauren and Trish after a car chase, in which they reveal that they are CIA agents and, on Lauren's advice, shoot the headlights on Heinrich's car, deploying the airbags and sending Heinrich's car spiraling out of control. FDR and Tuck, on different sides of the road, urge Lauren to come to their side, and she ultimately chooses FDR as Heinrich dies when his car swerves off the bridge and crashes below. Lauren decides to be with FDR, and Tuck makes amends with him. Tuck soon reconciles with Katie and they get married once more.
Shortly thereafter, FDR and Tuck are about to parachute out of a cargo plane when FDR reveals that he'll marry Lauren, and also that he had sex with Katie before she met Tuck, and no longer feels guilty about it because Tuck had sex with Lauren. Tuck, however, reveals that they didn't go all the way and angrily tackles FDR out of the plane.
The film has Reese Witherspoon as Lauren Scott, Chris Pine as Franklin Delano Roosevelt "FDR" Foster, Tom Hardy as Tuck Henson, Til Schweiger as Heinrich, a German criminal, Chelsea Handler as Trish, Lauren's best friend, John Paul Ruttan as Joe Henson, Tuck's son, Abigail Spencer as Katie, Tuck's ex-girlfriend, Angela Bassett as Collins, FDR and Tuck's boss, Rosemary Harris as Nana Foster, FDR's grandmother, Warren Christie as Steve, Lauren's ex-boyfriend, Leela Savasta as Kelly, Steve's fiancée, Laura Vandervoort as Britta, Jenny Slate as Emily, Natassia Malthe as Xenia and Mike Dopud as Ivan, Heinrich's associate.
Principal photography took place in Vancouver from September 13 to December 1, 2010. The film's working title was Spy vs. Spy, but the name was changed only a couple of months before release to This Means War.
The film opened with generally negative reviews. Based upon 129 reviews, it received a 25% "rotten" score on Rotten Tomatoes. Among 35 top critics, it had an approval rating of 23% with the consensus saying, "A career lowlight for all three of its likable stars, This Means War is loud, clumsily edited, and neither romantic nor funny."
Peter Travers of Rolling Stone found this "action-spiked romcom death-sentenced by a lack of humor, heart and a coherent reason for being. I could say more, but do I really need to?" Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times considered the film "an incompetent stupid action comedy" that was "so bad it's nothing else but bad" and observed that Witherspoon lacked the "irresistible raw sex appeal" to be "convincing as the woman [Hardy and Pine] go to war over." Richard Roeper of ReelzChannel called the film "one of the worst movies of this or any other year" and mocked Handler, who looked old, "lost," and "haggard" while delivering "her lines in a kind of flat monotone."
Lou Lumenick of the New York Post ridiculed the film for being "spectacularly awful" and "riddled with continuity errors," suggesting that it "has a script whose sensible parts would fit on a napkin with enough room left over for the Gettysburg Address." Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter recommended "the whole picture" be "sent back for a reshoot" as it "manages to embarrass its three eminently attractive leading players in every scene" and disapproved of Handler's performance, noting that she "has no sense of creating a character." James Berardinelli of ReelViews dismissed the film as "a 98-minute music video without the music -- all splash and little heart," joking that "we keep hoping the sleazy bad guy will show up and shoot" the main characters.
Claudia Puig of USA Today opined that "silly action sequences grow tedious and rarely blend with the wannabe madcap comedy" and concluded that McG "can't seem to decide whether he's making a spy action flick with romance interspersed or a rom-com peppered with action." Mary Pols of Time criticized the film's "terrible sense of chemistry all the way around" and declared that "even the pairing of Witherspoon and Handler turns out to be a dud." Peter Debruge of Variety thought Hardy and Pine "are too busy trying to out-appeal one another to make the buddy dynamic click" and wondered if "it's the pic's cartoonish tone that keeps them from doing much more than look pretty, trading on the stars' blue eyes and impossibly big lips in lieu of their proven acting ability."
Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly "enjoyed everything that's all over the place about the finished product" and stated that while it "may have been hammered together by brute Hollywood force, there's this going for it: It's game to throw in anything that'll keep the motor running." Tom Long of The Detroit News characterized the film as "unpretentious goofiness" with "some nice light yuks" and believed "the whole sublimely stupid mess works." Betsy Sharkey of the Los Angeles Times warned that "if you can get past the gross invasion of privacy," there "is some bittersweet fun peppered by bursts of sharp patter," especially from Hardy and Pine, who electrified "the screen almost any time they're sharing it."
If you love stories relating to 'love triangle' then do watch the film This Means War when it gets released on 16 March 2012.
The movie has an interesting plot. CIA agents and best friends FDR Foster (Chris Pine) and Tuck Henson (Tom Hardy) are deployed to Hong Kong to prevent international criminal Heinrich from acquiring a weapon of mass destruction, but the mission goes awry, resulting in the death of Heinrich's brother Jonas and Heinrich swearing revenge against them. For their protection, their boss, Collins (Angela Bassett), assigns them to desk duty upon returning to America.
FDR is a womanizer, whose cover is that he's a cruise ship captain, while Tuck, who presents himself as a travel agent, has an ex-wife, Katie (Abigail Spencer), and a son, Joe (John Paul Ruttan). After seeing a commercial for online dating, Tuck decides to sign himself up and is paired with Lauren Scott (Reese Witherspoon), a product testing executive who's dealing with the recent engagement of her ex-boyfriend. Her best friend, Trish (Chelsea Handler), has signed her up for the same online dating site. FDR insists on being Tuck's backup for the date and hides nearby, but Tuck and Lauren hit it off.
Shortly thereafter, FDR runs into Lauren at a video store and tries to flirt with her, not knowing she's Tuck's date, but she notices that he's a ladies' man and ignores him. Intrigued, FDR crashes into one of Lauren's test groups and persuades her to go on a date with him, where they also enjoy themselves. Lauren feels guilty about dating two men at the same time, but is persuaded by Trish to make the best of the situation.
FDR and Tuck soon discover that they're seeing the same woman and decide not to tell her that they know each other, to interfere with each others' dates, nor have sex with her and let her make a decision between them. However, they soon break their rules and use CIA technology to spy on her and discover her preferences, as well as try to sabotage one another. FDR and Lauren eventually have sex, and Tuck and Lauren nearly do as well, before Lauren interrupts it, feeling bad about herself.
One day, Lauren invites Tuck to lunch, while FDR discovers that Heinrich has come to America to get revenge against them. He interrupts Lauren's date with Tuck to warn him, but Tuck doesn't believe him and they get into a fight, during which Lauren discovers that they're friends and decides to leave alone with Trish. At that moment, they are captured by Heinrich and his men, who are pursued by FDR and Tuck.
FDR and Tuck rescue Lauren and Trish after a car chase, in which they reveal that they are CIA agents and, on Lauren's advice, shoot the headlights on Heinrich's car, deploying the airbags and sending Heinrich's car spiraling out of control. FDR and Tuck, on different sides of the road, urge Lauren to come to their side, and she ultimately chooses FDR as Heinrich dies when his car swerves off the bridge and crashes below. Lauren decides to be with FDR, and Tuck makes amends with him. Tuck soon reconciles with Katie and they get married once more.
Shortly thereafter, FDR and Tuck are about to parachute out of a cargo plane when FDR reveals that he'll marry Lauren, and also that he had sex with Katie before she met Tuck, and no longer feels guilty about it because Tuck had sex with Lauren. Tuck, however, reveals that they didn't go all the way and angrily tackles FDR out of the plane.
The film has Reese Witherspoon as Lauren Scott, Chris Pine as Franklin Delano Roosevelt "FDR" Foster, Tom Hardy as Tuck Henson, Til Schweiger as Heinrich, a German criminal, Chelsea Handler as Trish, Lauren's best friend, John Paul Ruttan as Joe Henson, Tuck's son, Abigail Spencer as Katie, Tuck's ex-girlfriend, Angela Bassett as Collins, FDR and Tuck's boss, Rosemary Harris as Nana Foster, FDR's grandmother, Warren Christie as Steve, Lauren's ex-boyfriend, Leela Savasta as Kelly, Steve's fiancée, Laura Vandervoort as Britta, Jenny Slate as Emily, Natassia Malthe as Xenia and Mike Dopud as Ivan, Heinrich's associate.
Principal photography took place in Vancouver from September 13 to December 1, 2010. The film's working title was Spy vs. Spy, but the name was changed only a couple of months before release to This Means War.
The film opened with generally negative reviews. Based upon 129 reviews, it received a 25% "rotten" score on Rotten Tomatoes. Among 35 top critics, it had an approval rating of 23% with the consensus saying, "A career lowlight for all three of its likable stars, This Means War is loud, clumsily edited, and neither romantic nor funny."
Peter Travers of Rolling Stone found this "action-spiked romcom death-sentenced by a lack of humor, heart and a coherent reason for being. I could say more, but do I really need to?" Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times considered the film "an incompetent stupid action comedy" that was "so bad it's nothing else but bad" and observed that Witherspoon lacked the "irresistible raw sex appeal" to be "convincing as the woman [Hardy and Pine] go to war over." Richard Roeper of ReelzChannel called the film "one of the worst movies of this or any other year" and mocked Handler, who looked old, "lost," and "haggard" while delivering "her lines in a kind of flat monotone."
Lou Lumenick of the New York Post ridiculed the film for being "spectacularly awful" and "riddled with continuity errors," suggesting that it "has a script whose sensible parts would fit on a napkin with enough room left over for the Gettysburg Address." Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter recommended "the whole picture" be "sent back for a reshoot" as it "manages to embarrass its three eminently attractive leading players in every scene" and disapproved of Handler's performance, noting that she "has no sense of creating a character." James Berardinelli of ReelViews dismissed the film as "a 98-minute music video without the music -- all splash and little heart," joking that "we keep hoping the sleazy bad guy will show up and shoot" the main characters.
Claudia Puig of USA Today opined that "silly action sequences grow tedious and rarely blend with the wannabe madcap comedy" and concluded that McG "can't seem to decide whether he's making a spy action flick with romance interspersed or a rom-com peppered with action." Mary Pols of Time criticized the film's "terrible sense of chemistry all the way around" and declared that "even the pairing of Witherspoon and Handler turns out to be a dud." Peter Debruge of Variety thought Hardy and Pine "are too busy trying to out-appeal one another to make the buddy dynamic click" and wondered if "it's the pic's cartoonish tone that keeps them from doing much more than look pretty, trading on the stars' blue eyes and impossibly big lips in lieu of their proven acting ability."
Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly "enjoyed everything that's all over the place about the finished product" and stated that while it "may have been hammered together by brute Hollywood force, there's this going for it: It's game to throw in anything that'll keep the motor running." Tom Long of The Detroit News characterized the film as "unpretentious goofiness" with "some nice light yuks" and believed "the whole sublimely stupid mess works." Betsy Sharkey of the Los Angeles Times warned that "if you can get past the gross invasion of privacy," there "is some bittersweet fun peppered by bursts of sharp patter," especially from Hardy and Pine, who electrified "the screen almost any time they're sharing it."
If you love stories relating to 'love triangle' then do watch the film This Means War when it gets released on 16 March 2012.
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