Esto es la guerra

After seeing the previews, I had already been convinced that I wanted to see This Means War - romantic comedy spy movie - right up my alley. My hubby wasn't similarly convinced.

After getting tickets to an advance screening, we both went - and ended up pleasantly surprised. This Means War was funny, really funny - Chelsea Handler was the hidden gem of the movie.

The movie never took itself too seriously, which was refreshing - it had a few heartfelt moments, but nothing too sappy. It stayed on the side of comedy over romance, and wasn't overly predictable.

There's certainly enough action to keep the guys interested, with enough story to keep us gals entertained. And plenty of laughs for everyone.

It wasn't as bad as most of the people writing reviews have said. I found it entertaining, to a certain point. After "tuck" has his date, there was no need for the other one to jump right in, it doesn't happen in real life up to a point, I'm guessing. I'm not giving anything away, it's all in the bio. The actors, at least Tom, was way above the silliness, and you can tell he wasn't enjoying this movie as much as his more serious roles. He is too good of an Actor for this movie and his talent is wasted. Chris comes off as this creepy- older- smooth- operator and that just doesn't go away, a normal woman would have picked that up in a heartbeat. I didn't pause or fast forward, which is a plus, but I really wouldn't recommend the movie if you are truly wanting a feel-good Rom-Com. I agree that Reese wasn't her best, or if she is, she's NOT my kind of actor. Again, I have to go with it being just too silly. It would have made a better movie if one of the guys had had to choose, and not the other way around. She wasn't believable, and quite frankly, Tom was too good for this movie.

This Means War frustrates me. It has three excellent leads who all give great performances and pretty solid action and stunts, but the story failed this movie altogether. This Means War establishes Hardy and Pine as two inseparable friends that are even closer than family but spend the rest of the film easily dividing and pitting them against each other over a girl they just met. It makes Witherspoon's character feel like she is really hurting these guys' lives, but it's all played as not that big of a deal. And when she ultimately chooses one of them over the other, the guys forgive each other like nothing happened and then jump to characters talking about marriage. I'm old-fashioned regarding loyalty and romance, so this movie irritated my pet peeve. It's not as bad as my rating might imply, but I'm irked.

This Means War is the oldest tale: two men fight for the attention of a beautiful woman. However, this time, the two men in question happen to be the new Captain Kirk and the new Bane from Batman and they're vying for the affections of that chick from Legally Blonde. Unfortunately, neither man use phasers, photon torpedoes or terrorist plots to sack an entire city, but they do make for an interesting pair of combatants - namely because they're both best friends who happen to work for the CIA (incidentally, everyone in the CIA looks like a supermodel - you probably didn't know that).

This means that there are gadgets and underhand techniques aplenty in their mission to generally do each other down and stab each other in the back.

This all takes place in a strange world filled with primary colours where everything looks like the inside of a Barbie doll's house (plus in this world a girl who looks like Reece Witherspoon can't actually get a date). There are some brief battles and even a minor car chase to keep the action junkies in their zone, but, primarily, this is a love (triangle) story and, if I'm honest, it's not a bad one.

This Means War is stupid, predictable, dumb, but strangely quite endearing and I found myself even laughing out loud in some places.

I think the film could be described as a 'date movie' as it's a good one to watch with a lady. And, if I ever stop sitting on the sofa watching DVDs and take a girl out, I may just show her this film.

And, just as a side note, why do both leading men look like they're wearing lipstick? Is it just me who thought that?

http://thewrongtreemoviereviews.blogspot.co.uk/

Hey, this isn't Citizen Kane. But it's funny, the actors are all good, and even though the premise is pretty silly--two secret agent types pursuing the same woman--the writers milked the possibilities about as much as they could without getting mindlessly stupid. The principals don't try to assassinate each other, merely to undermine one another's efforts, and the story works. Also, it doesn't hurt in a Rom-Com that Reese Witherspoon looks gorgeous throughout--as I suppose do Chris Pine and Tom Hardy for those more inclined in that direction--and the supporting cast is equally charming, with Chelsea Handler and Abigail Spencer especially deserving of kudos. What's not to like?