Dir: John Michael McDonagh
Year: 2011
Cast: Brendan Gleeson, Don Cheadle, Liam Cunningham, Mark Strong
Genre: Comedy/Drama/Crime
Cert: 15
The Guard is the story of a Garda Sergeant, named Gerry Boyle who lives a relaxed, carefree life down in Galway. When a body turns up, presumably killed in by an occult serial killer, he attempts to track down who is involved, discovering it is linked to a drug smuggling ring being lead by Francis Sheehy, Clive Cornell & Liam O' Leary. An American FBI agent, Wendell Everett is sent over to help take down the group of international drug smugglers. He and Boyle have to do what ever's necessary to try catch them and prevent a major deal from going down.
I was rather impressed with this, I thought parts of the trailer were gas but I was worried they might be the only good bits, thankfully I was wrong and it was quite funny all the way through and still managed to be dark. I thought Brendan Gleeson was brilliant in it but that's always the case, especially in drama scenes. It was a VERY daft story and had some silly bits but still very funny. Though it was was dark, it didn't have the edgy feel that In Bruges had. It lacked a bit in the main story and was pretty much just a load of funny scenes rather than a story building. It began with a story, had just a bunch of scenes, a middle of a story and more filler then just ended the story. I feel they only really had Don Cheadle involved to attract an American audience, it's being released there next week I think and without him it probably never would be. He was rather unnecessary but was interesting in it. One cast member who was seriously over-looked is Mark Strong. I didn't even know he was in it and he just appeared out of nowhere, even when I saw him I wasn't sure. I don't think he was even in the trailer. He was good in it though, even if it was a small appearance he was still good. And Liam Cunningham is usually good in everything, was happy with him in it, playing a scumbag drug smuggler. I was glad it wasn't set in intercity Dublin or something, would have made it too serious and unbelievable, character wise. The action scenes were rather odd, some well made but predictable action scenes throughout but it was mainly just an oddball comedy, with a few dark bits. Hard to even call it a dark comedy really. I thought it was quite enjoyable and certainly worth a look, but it's not perfect. It's really for an Irish audience, I feel other countries (Especially America) won't understand it half as much, but will still probably manage to get a few laughs out of it. If you're expecting the atmosphere of In Bruges or maybe Intermission then don't watch it, wait until you're in the mindset for just a daft, fun, comedy. It's the first feature film from John Michael McDonagh also, and certainly not a bad beginning. Though it's not perfect, it's MUCH better than the extremely disappointing, Perriers Bounty. That's an Irish film that simply tried too hard. I reckon it's worth the cinema trip instead of waiting for a dvd, to get a better atmosphere.
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