Reese Witherspoon

Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds in “Safe House”
Photo: Universal Pictures

Denzel Washington topped the box office over the holiday weekend as a comic book sequel flamed out.

Two holdovers from last week, “Safe House” and “The Vow,” were neck and neck for the top spot during the four-day Presidents’ Day weekend and helped push box-office receipts to 11 percent over the same period last year. Washington’s “Safe House” was #1, with a four-day total of $28.4 million. “The Vow” followed just behind with $26.6 million, according to studio estimates.

“Journey 2: The Mysterious Island” was #3 with $26.4 million thanks to a very strong Monday. “Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance” opened at #4 with $25.7 million, followed by the debut of the Reese Witherspoon-starring “This Means War” at #5 with $20.4 million.

“Safe House” has made $82.6 million thus far, making it the second-best 10-day run for Washington, just behind “American Gangster.” The drama looks likely to pass the $100 million mark, which will make it the fourth movie in the 57-year-old actor’s career to do so. “The Vow” has earned $88.5 million thus far, which means it is now the highest-grossing movie ever for the Sony/ Screen Gems brand.

The second “Ghost Rider” film, based on the Marvel Comics antihero, opened with less than half of the 2007 original’s $45.4 million debut. Nicolas Cage reprises the role of Johnny Blaze in “Spirit of Vengeance,” which, despite featuring a darker take on the supernatural motorcycle rider (courtesy of the directing duo behind “Crank”), suffered even worse reviews than its predecessor. At press time, “Ghost Rider” sat at 27 percent on Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer, which averages reviews from critics, while the sequel sat at 15 percent.

The weekend’s other new wide release, “The Secret World of Arrietty,” was #9 on the box-office chart with $8.1 million. The debut for the animated film, which features English-speaking actors recording new performances in the Japanese film, met with Disney’s reported expectations. Similarly, the romance-meets-action of “This Means War” wasn’t far off from the debuts of similar fare like “Knight & Day,” “The Tourist” or “Killers,” all of which had mostly negative reviews and opened between $15 and $20 million.

“Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menance” in 3-D suffered a bigger second-week decline than the similar 3-D re-release of Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast,” but still added enough to the prequel’s all-time box-office total to push it past the original “Star Wars” to become the fourth-highest-grossing film of all time. “Phantom Menace” made $10.2 million over the four-day weekend for a domestic theater total of $36 million for the 3-D version.

Two smaller but critically acclaimed pictures continued to benefit from awards season momentum over the weekend. The latest picture from Alexander Payne (“Sideways”), “The Descendants,” starring George Clooney, passed the $75 million mark, while silent film “The Artist” passed $25 million. Both movies are up for Best Picture at this year’s Academy Awards, among other nominations.

Check out everything we’ve got on “Safe House” and “Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance.”

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.

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Tom Hardy, Reese Witherspoon and Chris Pine in “This Means War”
Photo: 20th Century Fox

Woe is the woman entangled in a complicated, messy love triangle — particularly one that involves easy-on-the-eyes actors Chris Pine (“Star Trek”) and Tom Hardy (“Warrior,” “Inception”). This is the dilemma Reese Witherspoon faces as lucky lady in love with two very-eligible CIA operatives in “This Means War,” released Friday (February 17). Hopefully, you can read our sarcasm, because we don’t feel any ounce of sympathy for Witherspoon, as she had the best of both worlds working on the film.

There are, of course, pitfalls to real-life love triangles, so when MTV News hit up the premiere of the new action-filled romantic comedy, we asked the stars to debate the pros and cons of being caught between two eligible romantic interests.

“I guess the pros of a love triangle is that they make life more exciting,” Pine offered.

Abigail Spencer, who plays Hardy’s character’s ex-wife, said, “I think there’s only cons,” adding “I think the only pro is that you might discover who you actually like by having a distraction but it forces you to make a decision.”

“I can’t even answer that question,” Hardy admitted. “I’m trying to think of too many literal answers.”

Chelsea Handler, meanwhile, provided a thoughtful answer to our poll: “You get to have sex with two people simultaneously, but at some point, you have to tell the truth to both people so they’re OK with it, and then you have to pick one,” she said. “It should only happen for a myopic period of time.”

“I wouldn’t know from any personal experiences,” Witherspoon chimed in. “But from the movie, I think it’s very complicated dating best friends.”

The film’s director, McG, admitted to speaking from personal experience: “That’s difficult to ask because I’ve only been on the losing end of any love triangle I’ve been a part of because all of my friends are super good-looking.”

Check out everything we’ve got on “This Means War.”

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.

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Tom Hardy and Chris Pine in “This Means War”
Photo: 20th Century Fox

“This Means War” has all the makings of a perfect romantic comedy/ action flick, including the very attractive and high-caliber stars Reese Witherspoon, Chris Pine and Tom Hardy, the capable direction of McG, comic relief from Chelsea Handler and a script from the guys whose combined talents have brought us “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” “Sherlock Holmes,” “Role Models” and “Just Go With It.”

The story revolves around two best friends and highly skilled CIA agents who fall in love with the same woman and go to war with each other in an effort to win her heart. We imagine the filmmakers set out to make a fun, if only slightly farfetched, popcorn flick, but the critical masses couldn’t seem to suspend their disbelief. The film has a 30 percent Fresh Rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Read on as we fight through the “This Means War” reviews!

The Story
“Having great-looking stars who have the added bonus of actually being able to act makes the noisy romp ‘This Means War’ more tolerable that it ought to be. It’s essentially a love-triangle version of “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” rendered even more bombastic in the hands of “Charlie’s Angels” director McG. (Simon Kinberg, who wrote the 2005 film that spawned Brangelina, shares script credit here with Timothy Dowling.) So you’ve got your sport utility vehicles tumbling in slow motion, your gravity-defying shootouts and your obligatory explosions galore. Naturally, the premise is the most high-concept, contrived confection: Two CIA agents (Chris Pine and Tom Hardy) who happen to be best friends also happen to fall in love with the same woman (Reese Witherspoon), who has no idea these guys know each other. They promise their shared pursuit won’t ruin their friendship, but good luck with all that.” — Christy Lemire, The Associated Press

The Bromance Factor
“The relationship that truly sizzles — from the sentiment to the satire — is the one between FDR (Pine) and Tuck (Hardy), with Pine and Hardy pulling off one of the better bromances in recent memory. … Hardy (‘Inception’) and Pine (‘Star Trek’) are the heart of the film — proving to be excellent opposing sides of the same coin. Both balance their characters’ cynicism with a certain sweetness, their chemistry fairly crackling, electrifying the screen almost any time they’re sharing it, whether taking down a bad guy or squabbling about who is more lovable (it’s a tossup). With Lauren, on the other hand, they are basically gentlemen, so not electrifying.” — Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times

The Suspension of Disbelief Factor, or Lack Therof
“And in the film’s opening minutes, it feels as if that might be the desired effect: It’s loaded with overblown action chestnuts like from-the-hip gunplay, people dangling from the sides of skyscrapers and a gruff commanding officer. (That would be Angela Bassett, who shows up periodically to growl at her charges in a role that might have been hilarious had anyone thought to write anything legitimately funny for her.) But a good parody takes a finesse that isn’t in the vocabulary of McG, a bargain-basement Michael Bay more concerned with cool than coherence. Instead we get utter nonsense like a video store with a database that conveniently includes customer photos for the CIA to tap into. (Related: These characters are, in 2012, going to a video store?) In another scene, FDR wrestles on the floor with a small dog that has just attacked him, as Lauren stands 5 feet away, oblivious. The Farrelly brothers should sue the producers not for stealing the scene outright from ‘There’s Something About Mary,’ but for imitating it so badly.” — Ian Buckwalter, NPR

The Final Word
“Part spy caper, part buddy picture, part romantic comedy, part raunchy-girl-talk sex farce, This Means War has been assembled with all the haphazardness of an amateur science experiment. The project was directed by the amped-up industry go-getter McG (Charlie’s Angels), and it’s had a long trial-and-error history. The initial script dates back a century — or at least about a decade — and the string of famous guys who didn’t take the dual lead male roles reportedly includes Bradley Cooper, Seth Rogen, Sam Worthington, and, stretching even further back, Chris Rock and Martin Lawrence. All this fiddling and fumbling shows on the screen. And yet, and yet … I confess I enjoyed everything that’s all over the place about the finished product. ‘This Means War’ may have been hammered together by brute Hollywood force, but there’s this going for it: It’s game to throw in anything that’ll keep the motor running.” — Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly

Check out everything we’ve got on “This Means War.”

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.

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