This Means War (film)

''This Means War'' is a 2012 American romantic comedy spy film directed by McG, produced by Will Smith and starring Reese Witherspoon, Chris Pine, and Tom Hardy. The plot concerns two CIA agents who are best friends and discover that they are dating the same woman.

Plot

CIA agent and best friends Franklin "FDR" Foster and Tuck Hansen are deployed to Hong Kong to prevent international criminal Karl Heinrich from acquiring a weapon of mass destruction, but the mission goes awry, resulting in the death of Heinrich's brother, Jonas. Heinrich swears vengeance against them. Upon returning to the United States, their boss, Collins assigns them to desk duty for their protection.

FDR is a womanizer whose cover is a cruise ship captain while Tuck presents himself as a travel agent. Tuck is divorced with a young son, Joe. After attending one of Joe's karate classes, Tuck attempts to rekindle his connection to his family but is rebuffed by his ex-wife Katie. Tuck sees a commercial for online dating and decides to sign himself up. He matches with Lauren Scott, a product-testing executive who is dealing with the recent engagement of her ex-boyfriend. Her best friend, Trish enrolled her in the same online dating website. FDR insists on being Tuck's back-up for the date and hides nearby, but Tuck and Lauren hit it off right away.

Shortly thereafter, FDR runs into Lauren at a video store and tries to flirt with her, not knowing she is Tuck's date. She surmises that he's a ladies' man and ignores him. Intrigued, FDR gatecrashes one of Lauren's test groups and coerces her into going on a date with him. FDR and Tuck soon discover that they are seeing the same woman and decide not to tell her that they know each other, not to interfere with each other's dates and not to have sex with her, letting her instead come to a decision between them.

The date with FDR does not go well at the start, and Lauren storms out of the club FDR takes her to. After arguing with FDR in the street, Lauren sees her ex-boyfriend and his fiancée approaching. Desperate, Lauren grabs FDR and kisses him. She lies to her ex that she and FDR are together, as FDR plays along with the ruse. FDR demands that Lauren explain what happened and suggests they grab some dinner at a nearby pizza parlour, where they talk seriously and hit it off. Later, after dating both men a few times Lauren feels guilty about dating both at the same time, but is persuaded by Trish to make the best of the situation until sure who to choose. Lauren gives herself a week to make up her mind.

Both men bug Lauren's phone so they can spy on her when she is on dates with the other one. They overhear her tell Trish that she is going to need to have sex with them both to decide which one is the right one. This leads to both men taking steps to ensure she does not sleep with the other. After a few more dates, Lauren and Trish discuss the pros and cons of dating more than one guy, especially since Tuck has told Lauren he loves her. FDR discovers that Heinrich has arrived in town to kill them. He interrupts Tuck's date with Lauren to warn Tuck about Heinrich, but Tuck doesn't believe him. They engage in an extended fight and Lauren discovers that they are best friends. She angrily leaves with Trish but the women are kidnapped by Heinrich and his men, who are pursued by FDR and Tuck.

FDR and Tuck rescue Lauren and Trish after a car chase, and confess that they are not who they say they are. On Lauren's advice, they shoot out the headlights on Heinrich's SUV, deploying the airbags and sending the car rolling out of control towards them all. With Lauren standing directly in the path of the approaching SUV, FDR and Tuck, on opposite sides of the road, urge her to come to their side and she is saved as she ultimately chooses FDR's side, while Heinrich dies when his car rolls off the elevated freeway and crashes below. Lauren has decided to be with FDR and Tuck makes amends with him, as they declare their brotherly love for one another. The car chase is picked up by the news, and Katie and Joe see it. Later, Joe is at his karate lesson with Tuck when Katie comes to pick Joe up. Tuck and Katie re-introduce themselves to each other and she invites him out for a meal as a family.

Shortly thereafter, FDR and Tuck go on a mission. They are about to parachute out of a Chinook helicopter when FDR reveals that he will be marrying Lauren and asks Tuck to be his best man. He reveals that he had sex with Katie before she met Tuck but no longer feels guilty about it because Tuck had sex with Lauren. Tuck reveals that they did not go all the way and angrily tackles FDR out of the helicopter.

Cast

* Chris Pine as Franklin "FDR" Foster, a womaniser who falls in love with Lauren.
* Tom Hardy as Tuck Hansen, a divorced single father who also falls for Lauren.
* Reese Witherspoon as Lauren Scott, a product-testing executive and the love interest of FDR and Tuck.
* Warren Christie as Steve, Lauren's ex-boyfriend.
* Til Schweiger as Karl Heinrich, an international criminal who wants revenge on FDR and Tuck.
* Chelsea Handler as Trish, Lauren's best friend who encourages her to keep seeing both men.
* John Paul Ruttan as Joe, Tuck's young son.
* Abigail Spencer as Katie, Tuck's ex-wife.
* Angela Bassett as Collins, FDR and Tuck's boss.
* Rosemary Harris as Nana Foster, FDR's grandmother who raised him when his parents died
* Jenny Slate as Emily, Lauren's assistant.
* Rebel Wilson as actress playing Tuck's sister (extended).
* David Koechner as actor playing Tuck's father (extended).

Production

According to ''Entertainment Weekly'', "the initial script dates back ..at least about a decade," with Bradley Cooper, Seth Rogen, and Sam Worthington reportedly turning down the lead role. Going back even further, Martin Lawrence and Chris Rock also declined the part. Screenwriter Larry Doyle claimed to have read the script in 1998, and that in the draft the protagonists were video game designers with access to guided missiles.

Release

''This Means War'' was previously scheduled for wide release on February 14, but 20th Century Fox postponed its opening to February 17, 2012, in order "to avoid a head-on confrontation with" Screen Gems' '' The Vow'', which had been "expected to dominate" the box office on Valentine's Day. Instead, it was sneak previewed that "Tuesday evening at between 2,000 and 2,500 locations nationwide." During its first weekend ending February 19, it opened at number 5 behind ''Safe House'', ''The Vow'', '' Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance'', and '' Journey 2: The Mysterious Island'' with $17.4 million from 3,189 locations. The following weekend, it dropped to number 7 behind newcomers ''Act of Valor'' and Tyler Perry's ''Good Deeds'' with $8.4 million. After a 17-week theatrical run, it earned $54,760,791 domestically and $101,730,488 overseas for a worldwide total of $156,491,279.

The film was released to DVD and Blu-ray Disc on May 22, 2012 with a rating of PG-13.

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes ''This Means War'' has a score of 26% based on reviews from 180 critics, with an average score of 4.28/10 with the site's consensus saying, "A career lowlight for all three of its likable stars, ''This Means War'' is loud, clumsily edited, and neither romantic nor funny." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 31 out of 100, based on 36 reviews, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade A− on scale of A to F.

Peter Travers of ''Rolling Stone'' found this "action-spiked romcom ..death-sentenced by a lack of humour, heart and a coherent reason for being. I could say more, but do I really need to?" Roger Ebert of the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' considered the film "an incompetent stupid action comedy" that was "so bad it's nothing else but bad" and observed that Witherspoon lacked the "irresistible raw sex appeal" to be "convincing as the woman ardy and Pinego to war over." Richard Roeper of ReelzChannel called the film "one of the worst movies of this or any other year" and mocked Handler, who looked old, "lost," and "haggard" while delivering "her lines in a kind of flat monotone."

Lou Lumenick of the ''New York Post'' ridiculed the film for being "spectacularly awful" and "riddled with continuity errors," suggesting that it "has a script whose sensible parts would fit on a napkin with enough room left over for the Gettysburg Address." Todd McCarthy of ''The Hollywood Reporter'' recommended "the whole picture" be "sent back for a reshoot" as it "manages to embarrass its three eminently attractive leading players in every scene" and disapproved of Handler's performance, noting that she "has no sense of creating a character." James Berardinelli of ReelViews dismissed the film as "a 98-minute music video without the music -- all splash and little heart," joking that "we keep hoping the sleazy bad guy will show up and shoot" the main characters.

Claudia Puig of ''USA Today'' opined that "silly action sequences grow tedious and rarely blend with the wannabe madcap comedy" and concluded that McG "can't seem to decide whether he's making a spy action flick with romance interspersed or a rom-com peppered with action." Mary Pols of ''Time'' criticized the film's "terrible sense of chemistry all the way around" and declared that "even the pairing of Witherspoon and Handler ..turns out to be a dud." Peter Debruge of ''Variety'' thought Tom Hardy and Chris Pine "are too busy trying to out-appeal one another to make the buddy dynamic click" and wondered if "it's the pic's cartoonish tone that keeps them from doing much more than look pretty, trading on the stars' blue eyes and impossibly big lips in lieu of their proved acting ability."

Lisa Schwarzbaum of ''Entertainment Weekly'' "enjoyed everything that's all over the place about the finished product" and stated that while it "may have been hammered together by brute Hollywood force, ..there's this going for it: It's game to throw in anything that'll keep the motor running." Tom Long of ''The Detroit News'' characterised the film as "unpretentious goofiness" with "some nice light yuks" and believed "the whole sublimely stupid mess works." Betsy Sharkey of the ''Los Angeles Times'' warned that "if you can get past the gross invasion of privacy," there "is some bittersweet fun peppered by bursts of sharp patter," especially from Hardy and Pine, who electrified "the screen almost any time they're sharing it."

Accolades

John Paul Ruttan who played Joe, Tuck's son was nominated for a Young Artist Award for " Best Performance in a Feature Film - Supporting Young Actor Ten and Under".

See also

* List of films featuring drones

References

External links

*

{{DEFAULTSORT:This Means War
2012 films
2012 romantic comedy films
2010s spy films
American romantic comedy films
American spy films
2010s English-language films
Films about the Central Intelligence Agency
Films shot in Vancouver
2010s spy comedy films
20th Century Fox films
Dune Entertainment films
Overbrook Entertainment films
Regency Enterprises films
Films directed by McG
Films produced by Robert Simonds
Films produced by Will Smith
Films scored by Christophe Beck
Films with screenplays by Simon Kinberg
American spy comedy films
2010s romantic action films
American romantic action films
Spy romance films
2010s American films