The Means War

I think I have seen all the movies that were worth seeing from the director with the shortest name I that I have ever heard of. I am certain there would be someone which less than 3 letters to his/her name. Like Z or X or something like that somewhere in this world. But McG is a really cool I say. The only movie from his table that I have reviewed to date is one of the best Sports movies ever made to date called We are Marshall. The others include the Charlies Angels pair of movies which was also quite good I thought. So, although I kind of knew that This Means War (TMW) is more of a romantic comedy, I was also quite sure that with McG involved it would be a reasonable Romantic Action Comedy. And it turned out to be pretty much that all the way.

Lauren (Reese Witherspoon) works at a product testing laboratory of sorts which helps organizations understand what works with consumers. Not surprisingly, that is not going to be too much help for her – in terms of her love life that is. She has just been dumped by a quite stunning male specimen (not that Lauren is any less mind you) and she keeps bumping into him along with his new girl friend.

The emotional strain that comes from the bumping, coupled with her best buddy Trish (Chelsea Handler) drives her to date not one but two men together – FDR Foster (Chris Pine) and Tuck (Tom Hardy). But what she doesn’t know is that Tuck is not the Travel Agent he claims to be. Tuck is a totally different kind of agent. The kind who jumps out of airplanes. The same kind who also beats the shit out of bad guys who are trying to cause harm to the US of A. Yep. The dreaded 3 alphabets – C – I – A (guttural laughter follows). And whats worse? FDR is Tuck’s best friend and also an agent. Talk about having problems.

TMW has a screenplay that borders on being corny at times but is mostly quite funny. The situation that Lauren finds herself in – torn between 2 men who are both equally good to go – is one that a lot of women would really dream of. But they would not be prepared to go through the complications that come with it for certain. And after watching TMW you can be quite certain of not dating 2 men at the same time – just too complicated. I am sure those with experience will agree with me.

McG’s direction is as typical as he has always been. The action sequences are slickly done and will be loved by the guys. Ditto for the dialogues. The women will also love it thanks to the even balance between the girly stuff and the guy things. There are enough of girl to girl talk scenes thrown into the entire scheme of things. A very enjoyable movie to say the least. 6.5 on 10. Better than some of the RomComs we have seen of late. Watch it.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1190305305/