When two CIA operatives – young, handsome, and really good friends – coincidentally fall for the same woman, they compete with each to see who will ultimately win her affection.  The bet is that she, Reese Witherspoon, must never know that the two guys she is secretly seeing are friends.  Other than that, anything goes.

No offense to anyone who thinks the setup sounds fun, but come on; is this the worst idea for a film or what? 

Directed by McG – real name Joseph McGinty Nichol, and he should use it – This Means War is described as a comedy/action romantic thriller, and it fails under every heading.  Yes, there’s action – the guys are CIA agents so they use all of their million dollar technology to spy on each other’s dates – and there are thrills – there’s a subplot of the revenge of a bad guy that rears it’s ugly head in the final act – and there’s comedy, except that it’s virtually a laugh-free comedy with a hardly a line of genuine wit throughout the whole script.

If the film has any appeal, it’s in the casting of its three young leads, all of whom are attractive and look good in close-ups.  The film coasts on watching Chris Pine and Tom Hardy doing odd things to win the girl’s affections, but you really have to be hardcore fans of the guys in order to actually laugh at their antics because they certainly never say anything funny. 

Sorry to sound so negative on this, but This Means War is the kind of lazy, poorly executed, humorless adventure that is simply not good enough.  Audiences, particularly teenagers who I have to assume are the real target audience, shouldn’t have to settle for depressing Friday night entertainment such as This Means War.  If Hollywood execs gave the greenlight on a script like this, what on earth are they turning down?  Considering the price of an individual movie ticket is rising to a cost-prohibitive level for many, sitting through McG’s McJunk is, frankly, insulting.

 MPAA Rating:  PG-13    Length:  105 minutes     Overall rating:  3 (out of 10)