This weeks cinema review is the low key but hilarious black comedy, The Guard
[imdb]tt1540133[/imdb] TITLE – [imdb:title] YEAR – [imdb:year] DIRECTOR – [imdb:director] CAST – [imdb:cast] WRITERS – [imdb:writers]
Murder, Blackmail, Drugs and Prostitution. These are just a few of the elements from this very unconventional take on the buddy cop genre, it’s name? The Guard. John Michael McDonagh in his first outing not only behind the camera but also behind the pen tells the story of an Irish policeman, Sgt. Gerry Boyle (Brendan Gleeson) who is put smack bang in the middle of a drug trafficking investigation headed up by FBI Agent, Wendell Everett (Don Cheadle)
Sgt. Boyle is not very driven, he lacks any ambition what so ever. In his semi crime free town in the West of Ireland, Boyle is pretty comfortable. He rarely investigates any sort of criminal behaviour, no matter how strange it is. Wendell on the other hand is totally driven, he is at one with his job, it is his life and he takes it very seriously. Although this is a very typical mix of characters the chemistry and dialogue is fantastic, it completely separates itself from any of it’s peers.
Now, have you seen ‘In Bruges’? If you haven’t I strongly recommend you go out and buy/rent/download or whatever way you get your films and watch it! NOW!! Just like ‘In Bruges’, Gleeson seem so perfectly cast. In the role of Sgt. Boyle he plays the part on a very thin line of stupidness and brilliance that seems central to the character. It is hard to actually work out what he is up to through the movie and for this reason it works perfectly. Gleeson has with these two films found me as a new life long fan. He can do little wrong from now on in.
Another added piece of brilliance is the casting of Mark Strong. He plays one of the villainous drug traffickers. It would have been easy to play the generic standard ‘cardboard cut out’ of a drug dealer, but Strong plays a character that is long bored of the life he has painted for himself, easily annoyed by the criminals he is forced to encounter. Completely fresh and very well written dialogue is delivered with comedic perfection!!
Don Cheadle is an actor that I haven’t really been into. I fell out with him in the ‘Ocean’s’ movies when he was doing that awful Dick Van Dyke english accent. But as FBI Agent Everett I actually feel that some bridges have been built. His character is so far out of its element that he resembles a fish flapping around on the side of the river bank. He reluctantly has to rely on Sgt. Boyle and has to learn to work with him. The two characters manage to balance each other out, and give some justification to why good cop buddy flicks always have total opposites working together.
I know it is not good form to be this much behind a film and I am leaving myself out in the open here for criticism, but I love this movie. To quote the brilliant Andrew Moore from ‘theFILMblog’ it is like a cross between Father Ted and Hot Fuzz. A modern-day comedy western. My only very small criticism is I didn’t understand the reason for all the references to literary greats, I understand that maybe it was trying to show that there was more than meets the eye to Sgt. Boyle, but it was the criminals too? Someone explain please.
To sum up, The Guard is a truly funny and different comedy that will make you cringe and laugh from the first 3 minutes to the end of the credits.
8/10
THE GUARD IS ON NATIONAL RELEASE IN UK FROM FRIDAY 19TH AUGUST 2011
Have you seen this film? Are you going to see it? Does it sound like your cup of tea? Comment below…
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05 Aug 2011, 10:29 pm
great review. you lucky man. i loved in bruges myself and tell everyone to watch it if i feel like recommending a comedy. some friends were telling me they saw this on tv recently which has left me a little confused. perhaps there was too much drink over dinner and they meant they saw a trailer?
mark strong was in our friends in the norht and fever pitch therefore i give him acres of space with making bad choices (sherlock homes movies, green lantern) because theres alway going to be something like this that comes along. mark strong playing a bad guy is not exactly a shock, if a certain world weariness has crept in to his bad guy characters that may be the actor sick of playing generic bad guys!
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06 Aug 2011, 11:08 am
Thanks Toby. I know I am really lucky to see this film early, it really was a lot of fun. I don’t know how it was TV? Strange!!
Mark Strong is one of my favourite baddies, ever!! He is great in everything I have seen him in, oh apart from that dodgy roman film, the eagle. yuck!!
Thanks for commenting and have a great weekend!!
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06 Aug 2011, 2:59 am
I am definitely looking forward to this one, especially considering I love both Father Ted and Hot Fuzz, and Brendon Gleeson and Don Cheadle are also favs. With British cop or crime movies, you really can’t go wrong. Being a Brit I assume you’ve seen them all. When I was 17, for a very brief period, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels was my favourite movie of all time.
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06 Aug 2011, 11:10 am
Yeah Lock Stock played a big part of my life in when it was out. I think I can still pretty much quote the whole film, brilliant soundtrack too!!
I hope you get to see this one matey, you will laugh a lot!! Very off the wall humour
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07 Aug 2011, 9:50 pm
Don Cheadle and Brendan Gleeson seem like an odd pairing but I like them both. I especially like Gleeson and thought he was great in In Bruges. I can’t wait to see this.
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08 Aug 2011, 9:17 am
I really look forward to you seeing it Dan. It is a cracker. Will have you laughing from start to finish!
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08 Aug 2011, 4:03 pm
I saw a review on Castor’s blog already and now you’re praising it, too. I really want to see this one, but I don’t know if it’s gonna be shown near me. For sure I’ll be renting it. Cheadle and Gleeson sounds like an unlikely combo, but that makes me want to watch them even more. Lovely review, matey!
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09 Aug 2011, 9:00 am
I can’t recommend this one enough!! It is such an amazing and sweet film. The humour is pretty close to the knuckle but it is very funny all the same!!
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16 Aug 2011, 7:14 pm
I absolutely love Brendan Gleeson – I tend to take his presence in a film as a sign of quality, even when the film isn’t that good. This looks right up my street – hopefully all the kids’ films will disappear from my local multiplex soon and films like this will start to appear.
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