This Means War Reviews

Our Review

This means guilty pleasure

Adam Bub, MovieFix

A bit of romance, a bit of action and a bit of comedy: This Means War aims to deliver something for everyone. It succeeds in most departments, largely due to the easy-going charm of the leads, and the overall air of not taking itself too seriously.

Films like these sink or swim on the charisma of the stars. Think Mr and Mrs Smith (good example) or Killers (bad example). Built as a vehicle for Reese Witherspoon, This Means War originally cast Bradley Cooper and Sam Worthington as her warring lovers, but we can thank our lucky stars it ended up being the largely untested rom-com leading men Chris Pine and Tom Hardy.

Tuck (Hardy) and FDR (Pine) are a cool-as-ice pair of spies who always have each other's backs. When a failed mission in Hong Kong leaves them office-bound in LA, the best mates get bored and decide to try the dating scene. As fate would have it, they fall for the same woman, Lauren (Reese Witherspoon), and use every CIA tool at their disposal to sidetrack each other's chances with their double-dating girlfriend.

The dashing combo of Hardy and Pine brings a fresh energy to a rather two-dimensional tale of friendly rivalry. You'll be likely debating the merits of both leading men afterwards. What stands out about this film is how the 'bromance' is more important than the romance.

As the rose between the thorns, Witherspoon is on girl-next-door autopilot in a role that defies plausibility: a smart woman like her would've figured out she's being played much earlier. Even if she's doing some playing herself.

Chelsea Handler gets a few laugh-out-loud one-liners as best friend Trish, but her unsubtle delivery is frequently annoying.

The bulk of This Means War plays like a set of skits as the men think of more ridiculous ways to one-up one another. It does get tiresome, but the banter between the Hardy and Pine keeps it afloat until the heart-pumping climax kicks in.

Director McG injects the same elements of his Charlie's Angels films into This Means War: it's loud, good-looking and guiltily enjoyable escapist entertainment.

Your Reviews

Annette

Would see it again. It was so funny. It had everything action, comedy, romance. A must see.

Karrie

Thoroughly enjoyable escapism. Romance, action and comedy and enough of each to keep both the guys and the girls interested.

Annette

Such a funny movies. If you want to just sit back an be entertained. This is a good one to watch. You won't be disappointed.

Rachel

Just seen it OMG it was awesome!

Tara

Just been to premier and it was ABSOLUTELY fantastic!

Add a review

My Rating

Name

Movie Buzz

Last:

24 hours

7 days

The most anticipated movies on MovieFix

Biggest Movers

What is Movie Buzz?

MovieBuzz rates which movies are trending within the MovieFIX community.

You can choose if you "Want to see" or are "Not Interested" in seeing the movie on the Homepage trailer player, or in the Movie Information page. After 20 votes, we tally these scores and create a percentage of how many people "Want to see" that movie.

We then take these scores and display the highest percentages in MovieBuzz. MovieBuzz only features movies from their trailer release to two weeks after they have released in cinemas. You can see the rankings on a 24 hour or a 7 day basis (use the radio buttons near the title to switch views).