I actually watched This Means War, that Mr. & Mrs. Smith-wannabe rom-com/action film starring Tom Hardy, Chris Pine and Reese Witherspoon. I watched it on TV once and I really disliked it. Surprisingly (or not so much), I thought Tom and Chris were okay in it. Reese was a huge problem, as was Chelsea Handler in a supporting part. The biggest problem was an asinine script, plus Reese being badly miscast as a vapid idiot character and throughout the whole movie, I had no idea why the guys were “fighting” over her. The film was a mess but it made money (mostly overseas). But the experience of filming it? Not so good, apparently. Tom Hardy spoke to USA Today about This Means War and other stuff, and Tom basically says he’s not interested in doing that kind of project ever again.
His experience on This Means War: “I love to do things I hadn’t done before,” says Hardy. Which explains that one time he tried on the big ol’ studio rom-com This Means War – and, well, hated it. “I didn’t understand how you could do something which is so much fun and be so miserable doing it,” he says, blaming himself for feeling “other” on set. So consider that box checked. “I probably won’t do a romantic comedy again, do you know what I mean?”
On James Gandolfini: “The man I met I loved. He was a brilliant actor. Super talented. Super sensitive, vulnerable, emotionally articulate, generous, kind.”
Being in the public eye: “I hate being tracked or followed. I don’t like it when people say, ‘Well, you should have expected that when you accepted the job as an actor.’ When you go to drama school, no one gives you a class on fame. … Just treat people how you wish to be treated. Whether I’m married or not married, people will find out. But it’s also not something I’m going to offer.”
He’s a homebody: “I’m not really a road dog. I’m a bit of a homeboy,” says Hardy, throwing a wink about his chef skills on the way out the door (his specialty: “cheese toasties”). But “the reality is, I love what I (expletive) do.”
I think most “serious” actors can a long time without ever doing anything resembling a rom-com. Like, Tom Hardy could easily fill out his career for the next thirty years and never have to do a movie where he tries to “get” the perky blonde. That being said… he IS a great romantic lead. He’s a sexy guy and I love seeing the way he interacts with women (he had crazy chemistry with Jessica Chastain and I imagine he has great chemistry with Noomi Rapace). He can be a romantic lead and still NOT do rom-coms.
Oh, and I don’t think he and Charlotte Riley are married. I think they just consider themselves married and live together.
Photos courtesy of WENN, Fame/Flynet, still from ‘This Means War’.
I got drug to the movie with my aunt and cousin. It was painful. Reese’s character/acting was just so so bad. The guys were alright, considering their parts. I kind of liked Tom in it. Overall though, such a predictable, half assed movie.
Saw it on cable: he and Pine were the only tolerable things in it and they were absolutely wasted on that lousy movie. One wanted to see a comedy with them only having a blast, or even a straight forward action flick.
Oh…I’m glad I didn’t pay to see that abomination. I’m mad at myself that I willingly watched it on cable.
Ideally a romantic comedy with Chris Pine and Tom Hardy MINUS the Reese Witherspoon would have been hot.
Oh he can do romance… Wuthering Heights was the 2nd film i saw him in after seeing him in Bronson..polar opposite films. I believe he can do anything. I wished he hadnt done This Means War also though
I’d watch him read newspaper for hours. and can’t remember anyone else being in TMW…
He had insanely great chemistry with Jessica Chastain in Lawless. I really wish they would do another movie together.
I also hated “This Means War” mainly because SPOILER: In a choice between Tom Hardy and Chris Pine, who wouldn’t choose Tom Hardy?!?!
I never saw This Means War–the trailer was painful enough.
He was SMOULDERING with Chastain. Dude is The Sex.
Dammit! Making an appoinment to watch Lawless on Netflix tonight.
And This Means War was an awful version of MAMS. The guys were the two spys. Chelsea was a horrible version of the comedic sidekick ala Vince Vaughn. They even brought in Angela Bassett who was cut from MAMS. Outside the male leads chemistry, this was not good. Chelsea Handler should never act again.
Haha, GlimmerBunny, I just spent the entire weekend watching it–seriously….watched it three times on Netflix. That movie is just AWESOME. He was smokin’ hot in Lawless……my favorite part is when Maggie comes into his room and he’s all ‘ummm……what you doin’?’…haha.
I also loved the part where he confronted Maggie about what happened the night he got his throat cut. He looked like he wanted to cry.
Uh… I’m probably in the minority but I thought it was a cute enough movie.
It’s a sunday afternoon, raining too hard to go outside, movie.
Happy Birthday to The Bloke!
The Sixlets love The Bloke and so were prepared to ruin their street cred and watch This Means War. This means I have also seen it – and I never watch rom-coms. It reminded me exactly why I don’t watch rom-coms. What a DREADFUL film.
Such is my love for The Bloke, it didn’t put me off him. I’m awfully glad he won’t be doing any more of this nonsense, however.
PEAKY BLINDERS ALMOST HERE!
I’m so relieved that he’s abandoning the Rom Com genre forever. He’s too good for that garbage. Plus he doesn’t have time for that trash when he’s busy doing XXX-type things with me.
I love romcoms though not the garbage put out by Reece Witherspoon/Katherine Heigl/Kate Hudson/Jen Aniston. It’s such a pity that they’ve ruined a great genre. I remain hopeful that it can be revived. MEanwhile i keep company with non-english language romcoms because they are still funny and romantic with tonnes of pizzaz.
LAK, I’m with you. There’s a place for a good, well-written romcom. But not the insipid, vapid crap that’s been churned out for the last decade or more.
LOL!! @Lak you rolled out a a excellent list of actresses that have ruined romcom. Or just ruined lots of movies.
Longhorn: at this point I don’t know which is the chicken and which is the egg.
That said, I loved LEGALLY BLONDE, but only the first one.
I still have hope that Cameron Diaz won’t make that one movie too many of her sex comedies/romcoms because she’s skating dangerously to the edge as well….
Peaky Blinders almost here YAYYYYYY!!!
“This Means War” would’ve been a lot more fun had it just been a silly comedy with Tom Hardy and Chris Pine playing pranks on each other. Gotta be honest, by the end I was rooting for those two to reaffirm their bromance and never to let a woman tear their friendship asunder again 😉
(Now I need to go lie down. That top pic which basically illustrates my personal kryptonite of attractive men with partially hidden arm tattoos is giving me the vapours. Whither my fainting couch?)
Yeah that was my opinion too, This Means War was a great romantic comedy…between Tom and Chris Pine. Unfortunately there were also too horribly written and completely unappealing female characters in it and it was therefore a terrible movie. Seriously Hollywood to make a successful heterosexual romance it helps to have both a likeable male AND female?
So right, you’re so right. Although imagine Chelsea Handler’s part being played by someone like Judy Greer, Aisha Tyler, Krysten Ritter etc. etc. Doesn’t that make you like the movie more?
Reading your excellent points, I was curious who wrote the film – 3 guys. What a surprise. Totally agree the stuff between Tom & Chris’ characters was kind of fun, but Reese’s character was terrible. I feel like the writers thought “pretty blonde” was enough development for her, and “wisecracking blonde” was enough for the role unfortunately given to Handler, who is a lousy actress.
I don’t think it was so much the genre he should stay away from, but bad films in general.
I never saw This means war, it looked dumb from the get. The photo with the laptop. The end.
I think most people that saw it regret doing so.
The guys were hot. Laura Jean Poon, Handler, and the script were the worst imo since Gigli.
OH. I dodged a REALLY big bullet then.
Hi, FLORC. is that a little chipmunk by your name? Cute.
Hah! Yes GoodNames it is. 1 chipmunk giving a flower to another. A bit too small to see here.
Here’s the photo…
http://dailycuteblog.com/wp-content/uploads/cute-chipmunks.jpg
And this 1 is just adorable
http://reallycutestuff.com/pics/350.jpg
I may get a little snarky here, but i’m such a sap for cute things. And easily distracted by any furry animals.
The puppy pic is pretty adorable as well. I didn’t see TMW for same reason, looked dumb.
I watched The Drop and it was so incredibly boring. He didn’t have that much chemistry with Naomi either. I only watched it for Gandolfini and it was such a snore.
He plays brooding nd smoldering well. I think people are mistaking those qualities for chemistry. He had very little in Lawless as well.
I’m sorry to hear that. I just read the book and there’s a good film in it, was looking forward to it. Will see it anyway for Gandolfini, may he float blissfully in space.
He’s a good actor who has been in a few good films but he hasn’t done anything great yet. His turn in Bronson was a tour de force but the film itself felt empty.
He’s nothing but great in every bloody film/ tv-series I’ve seen him in! I’m following him for years now. Hardy is one of the best of our generation: 2014 will proof he is, mark my words
Well, never say never right? Just because he had a bad experience with “This Means War” doesn’t mean he’ll have the same experience with another one. But I’m sure he’ll also have a long and successful career without the need of doing one.
I sometimes feel, as a woman, that whenever a male actor swears off romantic comedies, he’s basically saying he doesn’t want to make movies geared towards women anymore. I know that’s not what he said, but it still feels that way. There are good romantic comedies. There are good movies geared towards women. He just didn’t pick one. Maybe he should just cop to the idea that he made a bad choice and not swear off an entire genre.
I respect your pov, but I didn’t feel that at all from what he said. I dislike rom-coms but there’s a wide variety of movies that can appeal to women.
The romantic comedy genre is one of the worst out there. If you don’t believe me, just get on metacritic and see the most consistently low-rated films, 9 times out of 10, it’s a rom com.
He’s not saying he doesn’t want to make “movies geared towards women” (sorry, I’m a woman and I find rom coms insulting), he just doesn’t want to make terrible movies and I don’t blame him.
He’s a fantastically talented actor-he doesn’t have to settle.
+1,000,000
I’m so glad you said that TOK. I find most of the rom-coms ever made insulting and all of the recent ones insulting. And honestly, do we need a genre?!?!? I watch all movies I like or that I could like, whether it is targeted for male audience or female one…
Don’t blame Hardy for not doing more of those, well done instead 😉
ITA. Women don’t need a genre, especially not one that makes us look like a pile of desperate, love-lorn morons.
There’s nothing wrong with the genre; it’s the execution that frequently sucks. When Harry Met Sally was a rom-com and it’s brilliant. This Means War is a piece of crap because it’s a piece of crap, not because the genre can’t produce great movies.
Shouldn’t one consider who is contributing to that site? I’m thinking its more men than women. Nothing wrong with a good romantic comedy, IMO. This Means War was good on paper, but it missed the mark. Reese was badly miscast. I didn’t understand why they were fighting over her, then it hit me. They weren’t fighting over her. It was just a dumb pissing contest between two men. Something that starts out innocent, ‘I bet I can stand on my head and drink a beer’, but soon goes off the rails when someone decides to jump off the roof.
In the end it really didn’t matter who she ended up with, as their target audience (women) don’t think like that. It also missed the mark with both guys having shared the women in their lives. Puke. Who does that while remaining friends? And would you tell your best friend (who is heavily armed) that you slept with his wife?
@RobN- When Harry Met Sally is the movie every rom com-defender falls back on–a movie that was made 25 years ago.
Since then, we’ve had Fools Gold, Forces of Nature, Gigli, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, Over Her Dead Body, Bride Wars, Failure to Launch, Alex & Emma, Swept Away, Jack and Jill, What Happens in Vegas, and basically anything with Kate Hudson or Jennifer Aniston.
@delorb–I specifically said Metacritic and not Rottentomatos because you can see how the critics rate it without having to filter it out. If every critic is saying a movie sucks, chances are, the movie sucks. True maybe it’s more male critics, but I think most female critics would agree.
The formulaic and predictable nature of rom coms, the terrible writing, the embarrassing plot devices, and one-dimensional characters is why rom coms suck. Add to that the fact that they’re geared towards women and portray us in the worst light possible– infinitely obsessed with men and completely devoid of common sense, and you have a recipe for craptastic crapitude. This isn’t a case of “great idea, poor execution” it’s a case of “terrible idea, terrible execution”.
TOK: Since WHEN HARRY MET SALLY, we’ve also had 4 WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL, YOU’VE GOT MAIL, SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE, NOTTINGHILL, LOVE ACTUALLY, MISS CONGENIALITY (1&2), LEGALLY BLONDE, 2 WEEKS NOTICE, THE PROPOSAL, SOMETHING’S GOTTA GIVE, AMERICAN SWEETHEARTS, MR & MRS SMITH, ENCHANTED, STAR DUST, IT’S COMPLICATED, 10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU, CLUELESS, THE TRUTH ABOUT CATS AND DOGS, ROXANNE and that’s just a few off the top of my head. Some are disguised as other genres, but really they are romcoms eg the ones that are teen/action/sci-fi/family romcoms
The ones you’ve mentioned *are* garbage, but the genre is alive and well.
And even if you strip out the ones that are crossed with other genres, there are still lots of great comedies.
TOK,
I don’t care which site its on, its not fair to tar and feather an entire genre because it hasn’t been done well lately (well a quarter of a century). They don’t make westerns like they used to, so should we chuck that genre as well? Screwball comedies?
The premise of two guys falling in love with the same girl unbeknownst them is a great premise. The two guys being secret agents who therefore have high tech gadgets at their disposal is a fine idea. Putting Reese in the mix was a problem. As great an actress as she is, she couldn’t save her part.
Tomato, tomayto.
To be fair, EVERY movie he’s in is geared towards women. 😀
8 times out of 10, a romantic comedy will be horrible. TMW was crazy bad but the director is not exactly known for his high quality work, is he? It was a music video masquerading as a movie. It made no sense, they filmed multiple endings (which is always such a good sign), and the dialogue was the worst. He must’ve realized the scope of it during filming and is probably referring to that.
@ TOK: Well, action movies are not exactly intellectually stimulating either. Most of the time they make me roll my eyes just as hard as romcoms do. I still watch both. *cough*
“To be fair, EVERY movie he’s in is geared towards women. ”
LOL! Yes! So true.
I hate action movies too. I just get so bored.
LAK made a good point about non-English rom coms being good. I guess I never think about them as “rom coms” because they’re not American-made but she’s right, there are still great foreign romantic comedies out there.
That’s true, we do have German romcoms but I never think of them as such because while there’s a formula, they are rarely as cheesy as Hollywood romcoms. They might be outrageous in their humor but the “romance” seems more realistic. Well, as realistic as it can get. The people feel more real as well. I mean I see Kate Hudson in a romcom and while I do think she’s cute and charming (the films are often not), I don’t identify with her at all.
I feel like the “rom-com” is a very specific thing that carries a lot of baggage with it. It isn’t just a comedy that has a relationship in it, it typically follows the very forced plot formula of:
1. meet cute
2. they hate each other
3. they love each other
4. absurd obstacle keeps them a part, oh no!
5. obstacle gets miraculously resolved
6. happy ever after
I think in order to lure the female audience back in, they have to ditch the formula and make it more nuanced. As it is, audiences can look at the ads for these films and know how it will end, thus removing the need to watch the film at all.
Just make COMEDIES that have female characters! It doesn’t have to end with happily ever after!
I watched Locke just so I could stare at him for 1.5 hrs. I wasn’t disappointed. 🙂
Wasn’t it AMAZING. I wanted to cry at the end of it. I wish all men were like this–when they eff up, they take responsibility.
SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
The only thing Ivan did wrong, beyond his one night stand, was that he didn’t tell his wife sooner about the pregnancy. One detail I loved was that he always seemed to be on the edge of crying the entire movie. He was always blowing his nose, he sounded like he was sick–stressed. Can’t believe that movie was shot in 8 days…
Isn’t that the movie where Hardy literally drives, and talks on the phone almost the entire time? If it’s that one, then in not surprised it only took 8 says to shoot. Prerecord the phone calls, and then have him do his lines. I started it, but was unable to finish it, more so because my computer started screwing up. I’ll finish it one day.
I wanted to hug Ruth Wilson’s character. She conveyed so much just through her voice.
I wish he would. Seriously. I LOVE it when two GREAT actors do a movie that is ‘below’ their talents……..when they do something silly, or just for fun. If it wasn’t for Laura Jean Poon, I would’ve been into the movie. But she is NOT someone that I can imagine two guys fighting over. And the whole movie is stupid. How hard is it to say, ‘Hey, I just want to casually date, no attachments until I’m sure’??? Not that hard.
Just to stick up for good rom-coms…. Comedy is hard! Thats why so many rom-coms suck because the opposite is true, it takes talent to pull it off. Though so many scripts are phoned in which doesn’t help either.
Some of the best rom-com proponents have made the most successful cross to quality dramatic work because you know they have IT. The rest look a bit like they should stick to CBS comedies (no offense Alison Janney and Anna Faris, they’re both brilliant!)
My biggest issue (and I had a lot) with that movie was that she picked Chris Pine’s douchetastic character when she had the option of being with Tom Hardy’s insanely sexy and sweet one. And Reese and Tom’s chemistry was far better, too. Mess is right.
ITA!!!!! When she chose him, I was like wtf, are you blind and soulless??!!! Girl definitely made the wrong choice! I loved when she was saying that he was “too safe,” and he went all Platoon at paintball….I think that was the one time I really laughed during that flick!!
Apparently the experience was just as traumatic and exhausting for him as it was for me.
I saw the movie and it was pretty terrible in that I had no idea why they were fighting over her either. The highlight for me was Chris Pine’s line about watching the CHiPs marathon, which I appreciated as a woman of my generation!
But I also liked Tom Hardy in a romantic role. I thought he was really lovely, cleaned up well and had good timing on his delivery. Kurt Russell in Tango and Cash mode just popped into my head. Perhaps he’s not that naturally extroverted/smart mouthed but maybe I want to see him try something like that. Chris Pine could totally pull off a Stallone character ha!
The line was especially cute because his dad, Robert Pine, co-starred on the show.
I can totally see the Tango comparison! Or was it cash? I haven’t seen that movie in so long I forgot who’s who, but I loved it. Kurt Russell made Sly look good.
I really liked my best friend’s wedding.
The only romcom I ever watched start to finish.
That movie was on TV awhile ago, and all I wanted to do was send Tom that kitten poster where it’s hanging onto a branch and the caption is “Hang In There” or whatever. God, the ‘writing” in tha movie…oh, dear. don’t blame him for not wanting to repeat the experience. This man is The Ultimate Leading Man to me, though. Those lips…….unf.
My favorite Tom Hardy romantic moment is slow dancing with Gerard Butler in Rocknrolla after confessing that he was in love with the Butler. Priceless.
OMG I forgot all about that! Magic!!!
This man has such beautiful lips.
He does. The first thing I saw him in was Inception, and I was sooo distracted by his mouth. It’s lush.
Comedy is not easy and they do make a lot of really bad rom-coms. Being a good dramatic actor doesn’t mean you have any comic chops or can carry off a comic role.
Yes, the movie was terrible, but I thought he was its only redeeming quality. To put it nicely, he did a great job given the s$*! he had to work with, script-wise!
Has anyone ever seen him in ‘Stuart – A Life Lived Backwards’ (I think that’s right) It also stars Benedict Cumberbatch.
It’s very hard hitting, often difficult to watch, and about a man with MH issues who is homeless in Cambridge and how he helps support two charity workers who are jailed – a well known case years ago in the UK and shows why he is why he is. It kind of tracks his life from ‘now’ back to his childhood and it’s incredible – Tom Hardy is incredible in it.
I think it’s definitely worth a watch if you like him because it’s some seriously good acting there. Much better than This Is War by about three trillion times 🙂