This Means War

I believe the main problem with romantic comedies is the fact that they are extremely formulaic which leads them to be more or less predictable from beginning to end. Even with a CIA backdrop to "This Means War", it still is a rom/com no matter how you slice it.

Two top CIA operatives who are buddies, FDR Forster and Tuck (Chris Pine and Tom Hardy) respectively, end up waging war on one another after they discover they are dating the same woman, Lauren (Reese Witherspoon). These two guys meet her at different times in different situations and she has no idea that they even know one another. So it's the two that basically have a 'face-off' of who is going to be the better man.

This was adequately directed by McG ("Charlie's Angels" 2000, "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle" '03, "We Are Marshall" '06, "Terminator Salvation" '09) in that this falls into the same type of film of that of his predecessors. It was written by Timothy Dowling and Simon Kinberg based on a story by Dowling and Marcus Gautesen.

Others to round out the cast are Til Schweiger as Heinrich, the villain they are trying to thwart, Angela Bassett as Collins, the agent the two have to answer to, Chelsea Handler as Trish, Lauren's friend, John Paul Ruttan as Joe, Abigail Spencer as Katie, Rosemary Harris as Nana Forster, and George Touliatos as Grandpa Forster.

The fact that Lauren even met both of these guys is, in and of itself, implausible as can be, but then again it is a romantic comedy. And since it falls into this genre, implausibility and fantasy are allowed if not believed. As said in previous reviews, if you like rom/coms, you'll love this, but if you are looking for something more believable, meatier, that is not so predictable, you might want to look elsewhere. Don't get me wrong, this wasn't a total wash, there were some funny moments, unfortunately not enough to keep this flick moving right along.

Out of 4 stars: 2.5                       Rated: R                           97min.