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This Means War is a fantastic film.

I went to it knowing basically nothing about it: I just wanted some social time with Mr. JSpants, who invited me to go. He said it was funny? Sure, I’ve got this gift certificate, let’s go. I really had a fantastic time, though. It’s not some art piece that will change your life, but it is a finely crafted and enjoyable piece of cinema. It’s a fun evening. It’s a perfect date movie.

Seriously, it’s pretty well the perfect two quadrant date movie. The romance stuff in it is really touching, and for the most part comes off as pretty damn genuine. I bought both the relationships, which is fairly impressive considering a lot of the time a movie can’t make you buy ONE relationship. The action in the film is well-done and fun. It’s not the most over the top stuff you’ve ever seen or anything? But if you like watching some dudes shoot some other dudes, there are some good scenes of that in there. The comedy, too, for the most part works. I did a solid amount of laughing during the film. The two main guys have some really great banter between them. The “comic relief” female friend was actually both funny and a character whose I can believe is a real person and not a caricature. It all just works! It’s great.

Another thing that impressed me about it was how it somehow completely fooled me. I was that engaged. If I had stepped out of the situation I was seeing, and thought “What would somebody writing a Hollywood movie do?” then the path to creating the cliche happy ending for everyone was extremely clear. If I had pulled my head out of the film, I could have easily guessed what was up. However, I didn’t: I was so engaged that I didn’t look at the overall plot arc to see where it was going. I was actually a bit surprised at the ending, as cliche as it in some ways was. I think that says something awesome about the film.

Anyway, This Means War comes recommended by me. It’s not going to win any awards, but it’s just fun. It’s a shame that so much of romantic comedy is garbage, and not good like this movie, as I’d probably really like the genre if it was more… entertaining.