IN BETWEEN bringing big-budget series to
the small screen (SUPERNATURAL, NIKITA, CHUCK, THE OC), director-producer
Joseph McGinty Nichol – or McG, as he likes to be known – prefers to go
larger (and louder) in the multiplexes.
After famously rebooting the CHARLIE’S
ANGELS franchise (twice), then the Terminator brand (with 2009’s TERMINATOR
SALVATION), the director-producer here tries his hand at a curious
action-comedy-romance. We get two fast-rising stars, with WARRIOR’s Tom Hardy
and STAR TREK’s Chris Pine; an always-reliable Reese Witherspoon (above), as the subject
of their mutual affections; and a no-nonsense voice of reason, in the shape of
comic chat-show doyenne, Chelsea Handler.
The men are Foster (Pine) and Tuck (Hardy):
two CIA operatives sparring after a chance meeting with the sweet Lauren
(Witherspoon). Their friendship is soon left in tatters, since neither are able
(or willing) to withdraw from a race to win her over in record time. Only a
dastardly group of Russians – on a suitably covert mission – can bring
them back together.
McG’s film ticks the expected action boxes
easily enough – guns, explosions and others big stunts all appear to go
off like clockwork – but, as per usual,
it’s not designed to be taken remotely seriously. It’s hard to buy a pair of
agents agreeing to such a challenge, after all, let alone a pair of competing
actors clearly vying for audience affection (never mind about Lauren). Stranger
still, a constant dig aimed at Tuck (for being British) seems more than a
little jingoistic. The actors claim to have enjoyed it. Handler is the highlight
(by a mile).
Critical Rating: 3/5.
ED
GIBBS
First
published in The National.
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