First Hit: Parts of this were enjoyable but mostly it was a highly improbable mindless piece of fluff.
At the beginning of the film I questioned that the disparate parts would come together and give us a film worth watching.
Reese Witherspoon plays Lauren a woman who has an old boyfriend whom she caught cheating on her. There are two awkward scenes where she runs into her old boyfriend; both of these scenes were not required for the film.
Lauren is head of some consumer protection agency and her character loves her job. She has a friend Trish (Chelsea Handler) who is happily married and really wanting Lauren to find a lover so she posts her name and picture on a dating website.
Two CIA operatives FDR Foster and Tuck (played by Chris Pine and Tom Hardy respectively) live an incorrect and improbable wealthy lifestyle for being government agents.
Their opening scene has them doing some amazing fighting and gun slinging. Tuck responds to Lauren’s website post but then she leaves the date and runs into FDR who tries (unknowingly that she just spent time with his partner Tuck) to pick her up. Tuck and FDR find out they both want to date the same girl so now we, the audience, have the film’s premise.
The boys want to stay best friends and working partners but they both want the same girl. The film attempts to test their friendship, technology, Lauren’s resolve and love. The part that works is some of the comedy.
I enjoyed Lauren’s face as Tuck took out the entire paintball war. I thought that FDR was effectively embarrassed as his grandmother shared his youthful problem with wetting his pants.
Witherspoon is her usual lighthearted character but this film isn’t going to further her career. Pine is a good pretty boy and he did show some depth. Hardy seemed the most comfortable in his role and when he gut punched the karate instructor it was perfect. Handler was one of the more interesting characters as she kept pushing the film along. Timothy Dowling and Simon Kinberg wrote this somewhat mindless script. McG (Joseph McGinty Nichol) directed this and maybe if he owned his full name he might make a fully integrated film.
Overall: Although enjoyable this film is forgettable within a half hour after walking out of the theater.