This Means War (2012)

Two top CIA operatives wage an epic battle against one another after they discover they are dating the same woman.

Director:

McG

Writers:

Timothy Dowling (screenplay), Simon Kinberg (screenplay),

Stars:

Reese Witherspoon, Chris Pine, Tom Hardy

5 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Reese Witherspoon	...	Lauren
Chris Pine	...	FDR Foster
Tom Hardy	...	Tuck
Til Schweiger	...	Heinrich
Chelsea Handler	...	Trish
John Paul Ruttan	...	Joe
Abigail Spencer	...	Katie (as Abigail Leigh Spencer)
Angela Bassett	...	Collins
Rosemary Harris	...	Nana Foster
George Touliatos	...	Grandpa Foster
Clint Carleton	...	Jonas
Warren Christie	...	Steve
Leela Savasta	...	Kelly
Natassia Malthe	...	Xenia
Laura Vandervoort	...	Britta

Storyline

Two CIA agents, Tuck and Frank who are also best friends, have been benched because someone's after them. Tuck is divorced with a son whom he's not close to and Frank is a ladies man. Tuck decides to try and find someone so he places his profile on a dating website. Lauren, a woman also looking for a guy sees tuck's profile and goes with him. She later bumps into Frank and he hits on her and she goes out with him. she's intrigued by both of them. When they learn that they're dating the same girl, they agree to let her choose. But both can't help but use their skills to keep tabs on her and each other. And also sabotage each others dates with her.

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Plot Keywords:

dating | cia | cia agent | best friend | sprinkler system | 

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Taglines:

It's SPY against SPY.

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Genres:

Action | Comedy | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for some sexual content

Details

Official Sites:

20th Century Fox [us] Official site [es]

Country:

USA

Language:

English German Japanese Serbian

Release Date:

17 February 2012 (USA)

Also Known As:

¡Esto es guerra!

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$65,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$17,405,930 (USA) (17 February 2012)

Gross:

$54,758,461 (USA) (8 June 2012)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Overbrook Entertainment, Robert Simonds Productions, Dune Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

97 min 97 min (edited)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Dolby Digital Datasat

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Trish calls Lauren from a children's play center, which is a real place called "Crash Crawly's". It is located near a freeway which can be seen through the windows.

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Goofs

In final scenes at the end of the bridge, police van is parked parallel with the guardrail, with one ambulance also parallel and one diagonal. (As it zooms out, camera and crew visible on bottom of screen) When the scene changes to aerial shot of bridge, police van is diagonally parked, the two ambulances are parked in an improbable T-shape, with on of the ambulances' doors facing off the bridge.

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Quotes

Lauren: I'm going out. I'm dating. I'm having fun.
Trish: You date but you're not taking it seriously.

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Connections

Referenced in Chelsea Lately: Episode #6.195 (2012)

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Soundtracks

"Smooth Operator"
Written by Sade(as Helen Adu) and Raymond William St. John
Performed by Sade
Courtesy of Sony Music Entertainment (UK) Limited and Epic Records
By arrangement with Sony Music Licensing

User Reviews

Where did it go wrong?

I saw trailers for this in the cinema and considered going to see it. Thankfully I didn't waste £8 paying for a ticket. The premise for this seemed great- OK reminiscent of True Lies- but there seemed to be potential for comedy and drama. Potential that is sadly never realised.

Tom Hardy and Chris Pine are both charming leads (Pine needs to stop doing that chewing with his mouth open thing. It makes him look retarded)Reese Witherspoon is possibly a little old for this kind of role- or at least this kind of role with Hardy and Pine- but she plays the role well enough.

The problem is that there is no plot to speak of, very little action and precious few laughs. The film is beautifully lit but the editing is horrible. It reminds the viewer of Quantum of Solace with its action sequences that could be memorable except the viewer can't see what is happening. It doesn't look a cheap film and the cast and premise could have made for something memorable but how could the end result be so unsatisfying. Vapid, bland, predictable and empty its like overdosing on cake icing because there is no cake underneath.

All the way through I couldn't help wonder how so much could have gone wrong until as the end credits rolled I saw it was directed by McG . Nothing more to be said.