This Means War 2012

Mary F. Pols, TIME Magazine: Technically, movies don't give off a scent, but This Means War is so smarmy that it seems to reek of cheap cologne. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Why does Hollywood find it so difficult to make a romantic comedy? Read more

Kathleen Murphy, MSN Movies: A droopy love triangle seriously short on sexual chemistry, not to mention the kind of playful self-awareness that can spice up even the blandest romantic comedy. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: Would be perfectly acceptable watched on the back of an airline seat or at home while you're doing housework. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: Some kind of internal threshold for obnoxiousness is broken when you submit to this harsh rom-com... Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Not a distinguished addition to director McG's oeuvre. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: McG tries to turn This Means War into a cool pop confection along the lines of his Charlie's Angels movies. But pouring on the douchey hipness and charm only makes things worse. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Oh, it's OK, but you would think that with Reese Witherspoon, Chris Pine and Tom Hardy on board for a romantic comedy, some sparks would fly. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: Having great-looking stars who have the added bonus of actually being able to act makes the noisy romp "This Means War" more tolerable than it ought to be. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: You can imagine how the ball got rolling on "This Means War.'' You can also imagine how the folks who rolled the ball started to lose their minds. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Pine, who expertly approximated William Shatner in the Star Trek reboot, seems to have picked up some of the actor's air of self-serious buffoonery, and it suits him well. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Note to Witherspoon: This Means War is the sort of consumer product you're supposed to test before you win an Academy Award, not after. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: The best you can say about This Means War is that it would make a good date movie for couples in the witness protection program. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: If you want some nice light yuks, "This Means War" should do the trick. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: This Means War may have been hammered together by brute Hollywood force, but there's this going for it: It's game to throw in anything that'll keep the motor running. Read more

Laremy Legel, Film.com: Slides by on the strength of Tom Hardy. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: This perfectly dreadful romantic action comedy manages to embarrass its three eminently attractive leading players in every scene, making this an automatic candidate for whatever raspberries or golden turkeys or other dubious awards may be given... Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: If you can get past the gross invasion of privacy issues that would exist if this were real life and not just a frothy confection, what you have is some bittersweet fun peppered by bursts of sharp patter, the best between the boys. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: It's a date movie for suckers. Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: The director is McG, who allows no motion to pass without a musical energy boost. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: This isn't a romantic comedy. This is two dopey kids tussling at the family dinner table, with Reese Witherspoon as the wishbone they're fighting over. Read more

Ian Buckwalter, NPR: A good parody takes a finesse that isn't in the vocabulary of McG, a bargain-basement Michael Bay more concerned with cool than coherence. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: The kind of rom-com that insults its primary audience and panders to their dates, "War" is depressingly mean-spirited. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Nearly totally laugh-, chemistry- and coherence-free, this fiasco from the director of "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle'' has a script whose sensible parts would fit on a napkin with enough room left over for the Gettysburg Address. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: Not even Ms. Witherspoon can save it. It is, however, high time she started thinking about saving herself -- and what's left of her film career. Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: Hardy is raffishly charming. But you don't send a grenade to do a feather's job. Which is exactly the mistake that McG, director of this earsplitting, hyperbolic love triangle, makes. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: At the heart of the movie is a romantic triangle between three impossibly good-looking people who are so uninteresting that we keep hoping the sleazy bad guy will show up and shoot them all. Read more

Richard Roeper, Richard Roeper.com: And we have our first lock for the Worst of the Year list. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: If there's anything I hate more than a stupid action comedy, it's an incompetent stupid action comedy. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: A trio of appealing actors is trapped in an action-spiked romcom death-sentenced by a lack of humor, heart and a coherent reason for being. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Reese Witherspoon isn't an idiot, and yet she made "This Means War," which leads to the question: Was this some temporary lapse in judgment or was this the best offer she had? Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: "This Means War" is the worst McG film yet. And good Lord, that is saying something. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Even by the standards of light entertainment, "This Means War" is meaningless. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: It's a bad sign when a film which aims only for froth can't achieve more than moments of embarrassment, punctuated with sporadic agitation. Read more

Leah Rozen, TheWrap: In the dictionary, "frothy" is defined as being "light and entertaining but of little substance." This Means War is a totally frothy film. And that's a good thing, at least here. (Sometimes substance is overrated.) Read more

Tom Huddleston, Time Out: Yet another case of Hollywood execs trying way too hard to give the audience what they think it wants. Read more

Linda Barnard, Toronto Star: Not even cutie-pie Oscar-winner Reese Witherspoon can hold our attention for long in this ridiculous, bombastic romance. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: McG can't seem to decide whether he's making a spy action flick with romance interspersed or a rom-com peppered with action. Read more

Peter Debruge, Variety: This screwball premise lives or dies by the chemistry between Pine and Hardy, who are too busy trying to out-appeal one another to make the buddy dynamic click. Read more

Nick Pinkerton, Village Voice: By the time an extended epilogue brings back the characters that you've presumably fallen in love with for a curtain call, it only works as a chance for a head start to the parking lot. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: Proves to be little more than the canned Spam of the movie world - bland, over-processed and cheap, even when it's spending millions engulfing highways in balls of ludicrous flame. Read more