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Reese Witherspoon stars in This Means War with Tom Hardy (left) and Chris Pine. + Enlarge

This Means War sounds like a good compromise for a date night. If your date wants to see Safe House, you could steer him in the direction of This Means War with the promise of CIA agents and fight scenes. And chances are if Safe House was already on the brain, you weren’t going to see The Vow anyway. Releasing an option like This Means War during Valentine’s Day week is smart; it gives date-night moviegoers something to settle on.

And if you remember that you are settling, it’s a very likeable movie.

The film stars Tom Hardy and Chris Pine as CIA agents and best friends Tuck and FDR. After a covert mission ends badly, both men are grounded and forced to sit in an office in Los Angeles and think about what they did. This gives single-dad Tuck a day to realize how lonely he is, so he creates a profile for a dating website to establish a meaningful relationship.

Lauren (Reese Witherspoon) is a product tester who, despite her personality and gorgeous legs, has no luck with men. She vents to her best friend Trish (Chelsea Handler) about how embarrassed she is to be single, so Trish, in crazy best friend fashion, signs Lauren up for a dating website. Her profile is trashy and full of scandalous pictures that seem better suited to describe Trish, but it catches Tuck’s eye and the two meet for a “make sure you’re not a serial killer” session at a restaurant. You can’t call it a date because it lasts five minutes and no one orders anything, but apparently it was enough to spark interest for a real date in the future.

FDR is waiting around the corner at a video store, just in case Tuck needs to be saved from his pre-date with Lauren. He finds nothing interesting enough to take home, until he sees a beautiful blonde searching the shelves for a movie. Surprise! It’s Lauren. He tries to impress her by suggesting The Lady Vanishes, and she blows him off by calling it second tier to every other movie Hitchcock made. Pretty girls who are movie buffs are the type that can make womanizer FDR change his ways, and he hacks the video store database so he can find her again and ask her out.

Back at the office, Tuck and FDR are gushing about their new love interest when they realize they are both dating the same girl. The best friends make a gentleman’s agreement to continue to date Lauren until she figures out which guy she likes better. Both men take full advantage of being grounded in the CIA office and use every resource they can to spy on Lauren and learn her likes and dislikes so they can trick her into thinking each guy is the perfect man for her.

Although both men are very attractive, there’s really only visible chemistry between Lauren and FDR. Tuck looks good on paper (and shirtless, and with his British accent), but those guys never actually get the girl.

Handler’s character Trish adds humor in an awkward, uncomfortable kind of way. She’s almost as random as the foreign bad guy who shows up at the end of the movie to avenge his brother’s death. Remember the CIA mission that went badly? Both characters help to advance the plot and tie the storyline together, so the awkwardness is tolerable.

If you want to leave the theater liking the movie, just skip the last two minutes. The revelation adds a twist to the story you wish you didn’t know and leaves you hanging with no hope of resolution. That kind of feeling isn’t so settling.

RATING: 2 stars