This Means War - (February 17th, 2012): PG-13
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Opening Weekend Box Office: #5 with $17,405,930
Domestic Box Office Gross to-date: $21,616,717
Gross Revenue: $32,416,717
Production Budget: $65 million
Director: McG
Dueling superspies is usually a pretty bankable cinematic formula, but skepticism certainly increased when it was announced that This Means War would tweak the genre by adding-in a little romantic comedy and having the government operatives childishly bicker over Reese Witherspoon. 20th Century Fox would have little trouble selling the aforementioned spies, as widespread curiosity has been hounding Tom Hardy ever since it was announced that he would be playing Bane in The Dark Knight Rises; Chris Pine was the best part of 2009’s Star Trek, but he has yet to headline another true blockbuster beyond Unstoppable…man, was I disappointed when the lost the lead in Green Lantern to Ryan Reynolds. As for Reese Witherspoon, the award-winning actress has been a sporadic presence in theaters lately, and after the extremely poor opening of 2010’s How Do You Know, there was no guarantee that she could still draw a respectable crowd. At the very least, This Means War would be anything but a traditional romantic comedy, with the buddy dynamic between the lead actors and the undeniable energy of director McG sure to entertain some of the male demographic. In the simplest terms, the trailers made it look like This Means War would have some fun and throw logic out the window, a welcome change from the Awards-contenders saturating the theater just prior to Oscar Sunday.
This Means War opens by introducing audiences to CIA agents and lifelong friends FDR Foster (Chris Pine) and Tuck Henson (Tom Hardy), who are among the agency’s top assets but polar opposites when it comes to finding romance. Ladies’ man FDR encourages the shy and recently divorced Tuck to begin online dating, and soon enough Tuck is matched with consumer product executive Lauren Scott (Reese Witherspoon). Though the date goes very well, Lauren also meets FDR, completely unaware that the two men know each other; at the urging of her best friend, Trish (Chelsea Handler), the normally reserved Lauren decides to play the field and date both men simultaneously. When FDR and Tuck discover that they are both seeing the same woman, they make a gentleman’s agreement to stay out of each other’s way and let Lauren decide, but soon enough both begin to use their government resources and spy skills to gain the competitive edge. As both men’s feelings for Lauren begin to grow, the friendship suffers, but both must make a decision when their professional life spills over and begins to threaten the innocent woman’s safety.
Childish as it may seem, the imagination behind Tuck and FDR’s courtship of Lauren is easily the most entertaining part of This Means War, taking a considerably more lighthearted approach to the spy genre than has ever been attempted. For instance, when Tuck learns that Lauren considers him a little too “safe,” he takes her to the paintball range and proceeds to brutally and unforgivingly unleash his combat training on a group of young children, taking headshots and lobbing paint grenades at groups of crying adolescents; not to be outdone, FDR has a historian feed him information through an earpiece as he impresses Lauren with his knowledge of her favorite artist. Now, this simplistic bickering had a definite risk of not coming across as the script originally intended, but Chris Pine and Tom Hardy work surprisingly well together, illustrating a very believable friendship that showcases both actors’ comedic talents and is sure to entertain audiences. Now, Reese Witherspoon may not be the first name that jumps to mind when someone thinks of an actress worthy of the attention showed by two wannabe James Bonds, but she still shows enough charm to illustrate the sunny personality that audiences first fell in love with all those years ago. Unfortunately, the creative story elements and strong cast chemistry are simply not enough to overshadow some of the bigger flaws that exist within This Means War.
For as creative a use of its premise as was showcased in This Means War, there were still a surprisingly large amount of weak, predictable, and nonsensical elements present that severely weakened the quality of this project. First and foremost, there is a subplot within the thriller that involves an arms dealer seeking revenge on Tuck, but this “threat” receives so little attention that, when he finally shows up and kidnaps Lauren, the sense of urgency and peril is almost nonexistent. And I may have said before that Reese Witherspoon was charming, but there are times where her character is so gullible that it is almost sad…her lack of reaction when Tuck and FDR tear apart a restaurant in a bloody brawl is nauseating. Finally, to address the elephant in the room, the tactics used by the friends to gather “intelligence” represents a gross invasion of privacy that would represent the worst nightmare for anyone who has been stalked over Facebook…not sure that something like that should be portrayed as okay. Still, if you can get past these elements, I’m sure that you will enjoy the film that is more buddy comedy than romantic comedy, something that has not been successfully achieved outside crude, rated-R humor in years.
Wow, Reese Witherspoon just cannot catch a break at the box office, as This Means War debuted at a decidedly disappointing fifth place with $17 million, nowhere near enough to make a dent against strong holdovers Safe House and The Vow. Personally, I am curious as to whether this lackluster debut can be blamed on a very simple mistake in distribution strategy…as a romantic comedy that could have appealed to both sexes, I guarantee that there are a bunch of men who would have much rather taken their wives/girlfriends to this than The Vow over Valentine’s Day weekend; the movie may have simply been released one week too late. 20th Century Fox cannot be thrilled with the performance of their newest project thus far, and the harsh critical opinion certainly isn’t going to help things in the near future. At the very least, the silver lining here is that both Tom Hardy and Chris Pine can now enjoy the benefits of increased exposure amongst larger audiences…I cannot wait to see more from both. Trust me, the film is much better than you’ve heard from the media outlets, but you’re only going to get true enjoyment out of This Means War if you can turn off your brain and let some gaps in logic slide.
Overall Recommendation: Medium
