Film Clip: This Means War

Two CIA agents and close buddies (Chris Pine, Tom Hardy) find themselves dating the same woman (Reese Witherspoon) at the same time they’re more or less following the case of an international thief (Til Schweiger) who’s out to avenge their having killed his brother. Timothy Dowling, Simon Kinberg and Marcus Gautesen’s script is a fantasy for stunted adolescent boys masquerading as an action rom-com—too much action, not enough comedy, and no romance at all. Director McG (full name Joseph McGinty Nichol, whose body of work makes Michael Bay look like Woody Allen) manages to waste both Angela Bassett and Rosemary Harris in less-than-nothing roles. For that matter, he wastes Witherspoon too; she serves as a beard for Pine and Hardy’s characters; these two spies are obviously in love only with each other. J.L.