"A fun, playful and compelling comedy, executing a simple story well and featuring strong performances from an accomplished cast..."

The concept of combining the romantic comedy and action thriller genres is one that is so far without much success. Films such as Knight and Day and Mr. & Mrs. Smith were generally met with quite negative reviews, as film-makers continue to struggle combining the two genres to much acclaim. This Means War is therefore a seemingly hopeless task considering the somewhat misfortunate McG has also decided to give it a go.

FDR (Chris Pine) and Tuck (Tom Hardy) are best friends and CIA operatives, both highly skilled in their profession, but both desperately unlucky in love. That is, however, until the seductive Lauren (Reese Witherspoon) comes along.

Tuck meets Lauren on a dating website, and despite the initial meeting going well, Lauren coincidentally meets FDR just minutes later, and thanks to the somewhat misguided advice from her best friend Trish (Chelsea Handler) she decides to date the two agents at the same, although little does she know, that the pair - both discreet about their actual professions - are aware of the situation, both deciding to play along and leaving their fate in Lauren's hands, waiting on her decision as to whom she will choose.

Predictably however, the pair both fall head over heels for the beguiling woman, and soon find themselves in battle against one another, putting their friendship on the line for Lauren, who continues to be completely unaware the pair know one another.

This Means War feels almost like two films, at points an action thriller as FDR and Tuck are in constant battle with Russian gangster Heinrich (Til Schweiger), and at others a sappy romantic comedy. The latter proving to be great fun, the former not so much. The action sequences just feel unnatural, contrived and entirely out of place, merely denting the feature. The only argument for keeping the action element in the film is that the agents use their technique and equipment to help spy on Lauren and gain inside knowledge into her habits and who she is edging towards, as the pair adapt their approaches around such information.

The sub-storyline concerning the Russians is so ridiculous at points it almost feel like a spoof. Although perhaps that is McG's intention - I mean, can you really take a man that calls himself McG seriously? The romance on the other hand works well, as a very simplistic and traditional story of two guys fighting over one girl. McG should have just limited the production to this storyline, as underneath it all is a quite endearing and very comical rom-com.

Despite being highly enjoyable and engaging, such a film is always in danger of being a bit ridiculous, clichéd and over the top, and This Means War is all of those things - yet it doesn’t take itself seriously at all (That'll be McG again) which benefits the feature greatly, as it revels in its own absurdity. To begin with the inanity is concerning, as you fear for your well-being over the following 90 minutes, but you soon learn to adjust and to celebrate the fatuousness and enjoy the feature for what it's worth.

There is, however, a degree of predictability within the feature, most evident in the comedic aspects to the film. The humour is a little too accessible at times, relying on characters being hit in their private areas for laughs. Having said that, Pine is surprisingly impressive in what is a quite light-hearted role by his standards, similarly to Hardy, as they both portray a distinct talent for comic timing. 

When nit-picking however (easily done in a feature like this) it is rather annoying at how greatly that character of Lauren is revered, whereas in reality she is actually the problem, playing with the minds of the two operatives, damaging a seemingly unbreakable friendship. Two timing cow.

Also, and a quick note to American film-makers; British people are not called Tuck.

This Means War is a fun, playful and compelling comedy, executing a simple story well and featuring strong performances from an accomplished cast. Despite expecting to be quite underwhelmed initially, I am gratefully pleased and somewhat surprised with the outcome, but most of all, I still can't get over the fact that McG has McMade a good movie.