Hatchet Job of the Week
According to Mary Pols in Time Magazine the big action film this week THIS MEANS WAR looks and smells a bit off…
Technically, movies don’t give off a scent, but This Means War is so smarmy that it seems to reek of cheap cologne … [It] is a romantic comedy that’s been dressed up, in the manner of the much better Mr. & Mrs. Smith, to look like an action flick, presumably to persuade men that they won’t be emasculated by seeing it on date night … Directed by McG, This Means War is lit like an advertisement for a cruise line, all harsh candy colors in daylight, various shades of neon at night and garish 24/7. Both Hardy, who plays gentle Tuck, and Pine, as Tuck’s partner Franklin (a.k.a. FDR), are good looking men, but in this hyper saturated color and lighting scheme, you’d barely know it. With his eerily bright blue eyes and expansive forehead, Pine looks like an alien. Director McG fails the first rule of romantic comedies: make sure everyone but the best friends look pretty.
Read all reviews here.
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