This Means War

**This Means War has some good elements overshadowed by a story that left me aggravated and disappointed.**

This Means War frustrates me. It has three excellent leads who all give great performances and pretty solid action and stunts, but the story failed this movie altogether. This Means War establishes Hardy and Pine as two inseparable friends that are even closer than family but spend the rest of the film easily dividing and pitting them against each other over a girl they just met. It makes Witherspoon's character feel like she is really hurting these guys' lives, but it's all played as not that big of a deal. And when she ultimately chooses one of them over the other, the guys forgive each other like nothing happened and then jump to characters talking about marriage. I'm old-fashioned regarding loyalty and romance, so this movie irritated my pet peeve. It's not as bad as my rating might imply, but I'm irked.