This Means War Review

I saw This Means War on February 22, 2012. Now, I had heard from several people that this wasn't a really good movie and critics didn't particularly enjoy it, but I was thoroughly entertained throughout this movie and it honestly was one of the best comedies I've seen in some time. It follows the lives of two best friends in the CIA FDR (played by Chris Pine-who looks alot like Ian Somerhalder (Damon Salvatore) from The Vampire Diaries in this movie, and Tuck (played by Tom Hardy-whose a very talented actor and will be appearing as Bane in the upcoming The Dark Knight Rises movie in the summer). They both are on a mission to take down a terrorist organization led by Heinrich played by Til Schweiger. FDR and Tuck team up to take down Heinrich and end up killing his brother in the process, but Heinrich escapes for the time being. He vows he will get his revenge on them. We enter into the life of Lauren played by the beautiful and talented Reese Witherspoon. She appears to have a job where she assesses products on the market and looks for flaws in the design by taking surveys and things of that nature. Each main character is interested in finding that one special love and settling down. Tuck had previously had that with his ex-wife Katie who he has a son with name Joey. What's interesting to me is that Tuck and Katie are very civil with each other which leads you to believe that there will be a reconciliation at some point. FDR is one of those different girl every day guys. Lauren had moved to Los Angeles (where the story takes place) to be with a guy who ended up cheating on her with somebody else and then proposed to that girl. Lauren's friend Trish (played by Chelsea Lately-and man is she hilarious-I really think she's one of the funniest people today) suggests she does online dating. Tuck also creates a profile, but FDR doesn't. Lauren and Tuck meet, but what's interesting is that FDR is in the same building at the same time and after Lauren had the first introduction with Tuck she decided to go rent a movie for later that night where she encounters FDR. At this point, Tuck and FDR aren't aware they're dating the same girl until they reveal the picture to each other. However at first it's really civil between them and realize there isn't a problem. They'll both date her but approach things differently. One scene in particular that I found really funny was when they both go into Lauren's house from opposite sides and are doing intelligence gathering to see what her likes and dislikes are. Of course they also have CIA underlings helping them out along the way seeing what the other is going to do with Lauren. The paintball scene with Tuck was great as he basically showed off his CIA operative skills and Lauren looking completely baffled as to how good he was at it. At this point, she is under the impression that he is a travel agent and FDR is a cruise ship captain. The tactics get more intense as the movie goes along and there is even a scene with Lauren and Tuck that I just smiled at because it made me think of Water for Elephants (which prominently featured Reese Witherspoon) as they shared a scene at the circus. The main theme of the movie is trust in relationships as FDR has a problem with trust as does Lauren. Over the course of the movie, Lauren becomes more enamored with FDR. I personally wanted Lauren to end up with FDR anyway as I knew Tuck should end up with Katie again. As all the personal relationships are occurring, Heinrich is back and ready to wage war on both agents. After an intense battle in a restaurant between FDR and Tuck over Lauren's affections (they then realize their friendship is important), Heinrich kidnaps Lauren and Trish. FDR and Tuck are on the attack and it leads to some great action sequences. Lauren assists them in defeating Heinrich by giving them intelligence on the vehicle he is in which I found pretty cool to watch her have a hand in the demise of the villain. The scenarios I wanted for the relationships eventually play out in the end and as the credits rolled, I truly felt it was entertaining, legitimately funny, action-packed, and also engaging in some good drama aspects. I'll give it a 3/5, but I recommend it as you will be entertained.