Okay, so we have this cute girl who meets a sexy guy for coffee and they hit it off. A few minutes later (give or take) the same girl, meets another sexy guy, and they also hit it off.
Now in any normal situation, the girl would probably date both guys, right? Well, in ‘This Means War’ directed by McG…that’s not so simple.
The girl is Lauren Scott (Reese Witherspoon) and the two guys are FDR (Chris Pine) and Tuck (Tom Hardy). They happen to be, unbeknownst to Lauren, BFF’S and…CIA operatives.
Lauren has a successful career as a senior product evaluator for a leading consumer advocate publisher. It’s really much more interesting than it sounds. She has a very cool apartment and her own BFF, Trish (Chelsea Handler). What Lauren doesn’t have is a boyfriend and Trish is determined to fix that.
Trish signs Lauren up to an online dating service, and as fate would have it,…or at least the screenwriters, Timothy Dowling and Simon Kinberg, Tuck has also recently joined.
Tuck spots Lauren’s photo and he’s instantly hooked. They meet at the local mall for a quickie (date) and sparks fly.
After they say their goodbyes, a smitten Lauren wanders into a video store to rent a movie and…bumps into none other than…FDR. Note: The dude prowls video stores for women. It sounds worse than it is. Okay, FDR is a player.
Lauren and FDR also have instant chemistry. And….
What follows is Lauren trying to juggle both guys, and Tuck and FDR competiting with each other for her affection. And that’s where all the fun comes in.
I have to say that, what could have been perceived as, super creepy, is actually super funny.
Remember, these two guys are CIA agents…And what do CIA agents do? They spy…
FDR and Tuck not only place bugs, cameras and listening devices in Lauren’s apartment, so they can spy on her and each other, but they get their fellow CIA operatives to help them out in their…Who’s gonna get the girl first, mission.
Of course, you can’t have a spy movie without car chasses, kick ass fights and one or two nasty bad guys…Thanks to Henrich (Til Schweiger)an international arms dealer, who wants Tuck and FDR dead, we get all that as well.
Is ‘This Means War’ brilliant? Of course not. It’s not meant to be. But it is zany fun and yes…it’s definitely a chick flick. But one that guys will like as well…Especially when they see how romantic their date gets, afterwards.
Of course, that didn’t matter to John, the other half of ‘Two Jews On Film’. Check out our video to see what he thought and his bagel rating.
I gave ‘This Means War’ which opens in theatres, Friday, February 17, 2012, 3 1/2 bagels out of 5 because it made me laugh…a lot.
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