This Means War

As February was such a slow month for film releases I only went to the cinema twice.  This is probably a depressing new record for me and it remains to be seen if the March releases are more appealing - first up is This Means War.

                                              

PLOT:  FDR (Chris Pine) and Tuck (Tom Hardy) are two ludicrously named CIA agents and best friends who both happen to fall in love with Lauren (Reese Witherspoon).  The agents try to win Lauren’s affections whilst sabotaging their partner's attempts.  On the scale of Male Faults having small hands is on par with being British.  Lauren makes her choice.  END PLOT

This Means War has nothing new to offer to the extent that it really is quite an achievement that a film has been made which is completely devoid of any originality.  The plot of This Means War is exactly as advertised in the trailer.  Is this a good thing? Is it a bad thing? If I knew what I was going to see before hand am I in any position to criticise the storytelling?

If you are a fan of Reese Witherspoon you will enjoy her performance and Tom Hardy and Chris Pine had the chemistry needed to make This Means War work.  The problem is Tuck and FDR spent more time with Reese Witherspoon than with each other so the film noticeably sagged when they were not on screen together. 

Chelsea Handler was in the charge of most of the witticisms, but for the record, she is not known to anyone who lives outside of North America and quite frankly she can stay there.  

An unreasonable problem I had with the film was the names of the characters.  A CIA employee called Agent Tuck?  In This Means War FDR is short for Franklin however in my world FDR is short for Financial Dispute Resolution hearing and I did not appreciate the image of a file I have been avoiding at work popping into my head several times throughout the film.

The even more ridiculously named McG has created a gorgeous looking film which is so bright and glossy I almost required sunglasses but as an action comedy it raises more sniggers then laughs and is book-ended by two standard action set pieces. 

This Means War is an entertaining bubblegum film which adequately filled 97mins and gets a generous 6/10.