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EDITOR'S PICK
Rating: ***
Ever since the popular cartoon Spy Vs.Spy appeared in Mad magazine,
where two spies try to outsmart each other, this was an idea waiting to be
explored. This Means War puts in the booty - the love of a lovely
lady - as it pitches two equally matched spies against each other.
FDR (Chris Pine) and Tuck (Tom Hardy) are not only the best operatives in CIA,
they are also best friends who wouldn`t think twice before taking a bullet for
the other. Problem erupts when both fall in love with the same woman (Reese
Witherspoon). The two unleash their minds and CIA might on each other as all
becomes fair in winning the love of an undecided woman.
Almost everything that could have been done within the boundary the film sets
for itself, is done. This leads to a very predictable film as it progresses
almost exactly as one would expect. But that is hardly the point since if you
keep your expectations to the level of a typical Hollywood action-comedy; you`ll
be more than satisfied. Use your brains, and you`ll be disappointed.
There are some genuinely funny moments in the film as the two men pit strengths
against each other. However, they are hidden behind too many cliches and the
well-conceived action sequences does well to take away some of the tediousness.
The actors pull off the best from what they have been given. Not being an
actor`s film, there wasn`t much that could have been expected from them either.
However, where the film could indeed have scored, is in pushing for a more
realistic morality in men-women relationship. After Ernst Lubitch`s 1933 hit
comedy Design For Living, which for the first and perhaps only time
promulgated the idea of a lead woman, who loves and sleeps with two men she
loves, Hollywood has been in a state of denial.
Thus you have your male protagonists being everything from cheaters to suave
lovers of two women at the same time, but you have never really had your lead
actress anything less than a model of virtue. Morality, even during the 1930s
and even now, wasn`t so black and white for Hollywood to stay so cut off from
the reality of it all. In This Means War, there was a little
opportunity to be a little closer to reality, but it settles for far too less.
But then the film wasn`t trying to be a tale of morality or be serious about
anything and hence, neither should we. It`s a simple tale, which for two hours
gives one the comfort of familiarity without too many extraneous jerks. And
that, for a film like this, and of low expecting viewers like us, is enough.