Ralph's Movie Reviews: THE GUARD

Sunday, October 23, 2011

THE GUARD

Police drama

F.Y.I.
In Gaelic the full official title of the Irish national police force is Garda Síochána na hÉireann. The English translation would be the "Guardians of the Peace of Ireland” but they are more commonly referred to as the Garda, meaning the police.

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Brendan Gleeson: Garda Sergeant Gerry Boyle
Rory Keenan: Dublin transfer Garda Aidan McBride
Gary Lydon: their boss Garda Inspector Stanton
Don Cheadle: FBI agent Wendell Everett
Michael Og Lane: 12-year-old Eugene Moloney
Fionnula Flanagan: Boyle’s mum Eileen
Liam Cunningham: Francis Skeffington, boss of the drug smuggling gang
Clive Cornell: the muscled thug Mark Strong
Liam O'Leary: his partner David Wilmot

REVIEW
Set in the western coast of Ireland, this tale of criminals and corruption is unlike others in that the two leads are so different. With clever writing and crisp editing it moves along at a rapid rate. Although Sergeant Bolye’s wry comments and persona elicit most of the humour there are other oddball characters that add to the fray.

One thing I found missing though: the Irish are famous for their quick witty repartee and clever retorts. And there was none of that. Guess you can’t have everything?

CLASSIFICATION

for pervasive language, violence, drug references and sexual content.

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my ratings system

I've always thought that telling too much about a movie or warning someone about a "twist" at the end deprives the person the pleasure of seeing it as it unfolds, so I don’t do it. You may not always agree with my rating of course, but at least it is an unbiased opinion unlike some of the full time professional reviewers who are on the studio’s payroll.

A few movies you won’t see any review from me:

Scary movies: I’m the world’s biggest chicken and just hate getting the crap scared out of me. I can handle an unexpected door slam, that kind of thing, but a movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat…not for me. Sorry.
Movies geared to the young teen and pre-teen crowd with dialog comprising mostly of crude remarks, awful jokes and lots of rude, socially unacceptable body noises. "The Spy that Shagged Me" comes to mind. (I wonder if the kids know what the British verb to shag someone really means? They probably do; I bet you it’s the parents who haven’t a clue).
Sometimes Hollywood gets on a roll and they produce a series of movies that are all very much alike. For example movies about the CIA were very popular and so we had The Bourne Identity and Bad Company and The Sum of All Fears. They all had the same basic theme and it becomes repetitive. I will see some, but not all of them.

FYI this is my rating system:

0 stars = Terrible: so bad it’s not worth talking about; in fact, I’d pay you not to go
= Lousy: I actually got up and walked out before the end it was just that bad (no kidding)
= Not so good: thought about walking out but hung in just in case it got better (but it didn’t)
= A so-so good movie: I enjoyed it somewhat but wasn’t all that crazy about it
= A really good movie: I recommend seeing it
= An excellent movie you just got to see! I suggest you put it on your "To Do List" it’s that good.

some favourite websites

For those into it, Nitpickers at

has more movie mistakes than you could ever imagine. My contributions can be seen if you check out the Nitpickers Registry and click on the link Nitpickers Listed by Nitpicker Number, select the group 45,401 - 45,500 and drill down to number 45411. Although I have 56 nitpicks to my credit, some have almost 2,000. You wonder sometimes where they find the time to do it.