MOVIE REVIEW: This Means War

Starring: Chris Pine, Tom Hardy, Reese Witherspoon
Director: McG
Genre: Action/Comedy
Runtime: 97 minutes

I had seen some trailers for this film in advance, and I must say, it looked like a good action-packed comedy. Girl meets boy, girl meets another boy. Girl can’t decide on which boy to choose. Turns out, they’re both spies working for the US government, and on top of all that, they’re best friends.  Girl doesn’t know, but the guys soon realize they’re in love with the same girl, so they use their tricks and gadgets to foil each others dates. Sounds like a good premise, right? 

The trailer was partially a good thing, but also a bad thing. The good thing: it made me want to see this film. The bad thing: it had shown too much of it already. Apart from some moments, everything you see in the film had already been shown in the trailer. Every good joke is therefore ruined, because you already know what’s coming. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t watch the movie, but I do advise not to look up the trailer before watching it, if you haven’t already done that.

The story starts out with the two spies trying to make a bust. It goes terribly wrong; people were killed and the target got away. Because of this, they’re suspended from active duty. To fight the boredom, both agents try to put themselves out on the market for the ladies. Each has a different approach; one goes on an online-dating website, the other goes out for some ‘field work’.  By coincidence, they both meet the same girl.

Being the little boys they secretly are, they are proud to show their catch to each other. When they realise they are attracted to the same girl, they decide to spy on her to get the edge on the competition. When they find out that she doesn’t know which one to choose, they make a gentleman’s agreement not to disturb each other on dates. Ofcourse, this agreement is broken within the first few minutes after forging it. This is where the movie picks up pace.

Their dates are somewhat entertaining, but as I said before, almost all of it had been spoiled by the trailer. There wasn’t one moment of surprise left. Movie directors all over the globe, take note: You do want to show of the general direction your film is taking, but you don’t want to go in too much detail, which is what happened here.

It still is a pretty good movie, it’s both entertaining for male or female audiences. You know what, it’s actually a great film to watch on a date.

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1 Response

  1. May 3, 2012

    […] original here: MOVIE REVIEW: This Means War » Felix Dicit Share […]

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