The Guardian Review

Stephen Orr · 09-16-2006, 08:51 PM

Just came back from a sneak of Kevin Costner/Ashton Kutcher military flick The Guardian, directed by Andrew Davis (The Fugitive). Costner plays a Coast Guard rescue swimmer who reluctantly becomes a rescue trainer after being the only survivor of a spectacularly disasterous rescue attempt off the coast of Alaska. One of his students, Kutcher, is a deceptively self assured seaman who has personal reasons for wanting to become a rescue swimmer.

The film, while strictly by the numbers and very predictable, is very enjoyable. The at-sea rescues are suspenseful and exciting. The effects for these sequences are very good, and recall some of the storms we've seen on Discovery's The Deadliest Catch.

I was surprised by some of the familiar faces -- Sela Ward and Clancy Brown are always welcome, along with Dule Hill (West Wing, Psych).

I think this will come and go in the theaters, but do a pretty good business on DVD...

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Scott_lb · 09-17-2006, 11:39 PM

I saw "The Guardian" this weekend too and enjoyed it as well. However, I thought the ending was terrible. Overall, I'd give it a "B/B-". Also, this movie makes me want to visit Alaska!

Stephen Orr · 09-30-2006, 11:14 AM

Bump. Movie opened yesterday

Nathan V · 09-30-2006, 12:29 PM

I agree with you guys. It certainly wasn't bad, but it definitely wasn't good. The "4th" act was entirely unnecessary, IMO, and brought the film down quite a bit for me. I found the film painfully average.

Regards,
Nathan

JohnRice · 09-30-2006, 12:40 PM

You're not supposed to do that Nathan.

Adam Lenhardt · 09-30-2006, 07:54 PM

I saw this a week or two ago in advance screenings. I think the whole is less than the sum of its parts. I like everything up to the cable problem at the very end, but felt it would have been stronger purely a training movie or purely as a rescue movie. The three movies in one part made it feel much longer than it really was.

Patrick Sun · 09-30-2006, 08:11 PM

While the film was channeling to be "Top Guardian" at times, I liked Kevin Costner's performance, and tolerated Ashton Kutcher's presence (but he had good chemistry with Melissa Sagemiller, his love interest). The basic storyline (what it takes to make it through the Coast Guard AST school to qualified for rescue missions) borrows the best from the Karate Kid films (and others with similar student-teacher joustabouts), but it does run on far too long, at times I thought I was watching a 4-hour mini-series, while other parts of the film flew by (mainly the training sequences).

I give it 2.75 stars, or a grade of B-.

Just a sidenote:

Spoiler:

Colin Jacobson · 10-02-2006, 08:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nathan V

I agree with you guys. It certainly wasn't bad, but it definitely wasn't good. The "4th" act was entirely unnecessary, IMO, and brought the film down quite a bit for me.

Me too. The movie featured about 17 endings too many, and the real last final true ending is TERRIBLE.

Spoiler:

I enjoyed the first 2/3s of the movie - predictable but enjoyable - but it declined the rest of the way. It JUST WOULD NOT END! And that ending left me actively angry. I'm not opposed to

Spoiler:

but this one was just terrible. I ranted and raved to my date all the way to the car!

Don Solosan · 10-21-2006, 04:03 PM

"the real last final true ending is TERRIBLE."

I suspect this decision had to do with linking the ending to the opening myth of the Guardian. So there's is a logical reason to do it (closure). Whether or not it works for you is another matter. I personally didn't mind it. They could have gone either way and still made it pay off.

Within the subgenre of bootcamp/training movies, they managed to keep things fresh enough and created some action sequences to hold my interest. Not a great movie, but a pleasant enough way to spend a couple of hours.



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