I really don't like those phrases but this movie deserves the "instant classic" tag in my book. B. Gleeson is just amazing and seeing Don Cheadle having a role where he is actually acting is a treat in itself too. He has shown so much potential (Hotel Rwanda to name but one movie),but has done quite a few awful movies too, that I always relish him in the ones that actually are good.

But it's the Gleeson show here and the guy shows he can carry a movie alone. He is funny, witty and his character is quite hard to define. Actually a sort of Dujardin "OSS 117", but more realistically and more cynically I guess. Or if you want to go old school, Pink Panther it is. There is not enough good words I can say about this, so I suggest you go ahead and watch it yourself :o)

Something there is that is charming about films set in Ireland with Irish characters speaking in beautiful brogue and THE GUARD fits into that category very comfortably. Written and directed by John Michael McDonagh this is a funny, fast-paced film that manages to poke fun at many points of bigotry (anti-American, racism, the gay lifestyle, etc) in a manner that keeps the comedy rolling. In many ways the film is comparable to the film IN BRUGES, if that helps the reader to categorize in a positive way.

Sergeant Gerry Boyle (Brendan Gleason) is a small-town Irish cop in Western Ireland with a confrontational personality, a subversive sense of humor, a dying mother, a fondness for prostitutes, and absolutely no interest whatsoever in the international cocaine-smuggling ring that has brought straight-laced FBI agent Wendell Everett (Don Cheadle, in a role that allows him to display his comedic gifts) to his door. Boyle's partner, a gay man Aidan McBride (Rory Keenan),the brunt of many of Boyle's jokes, is shot while making a traffic arrest by the drug smuggling gang (Mark Strong, Liam Cunningham, Owen Sharpe, Michael Og Lane) which leaves the cantankerous Boyle to align with the American black FBI agent Everett to solve the case. What begins as a fiction filled alignment ends up as a touching friendship.

McConagh's writing and direction are as fine as they come for films of this sort. It will be necessary for most viewers to turn on the subtitles to understand the brogue (the few Gaelic passages are not translated!). The cast, from the major roles to the minor ones (especially the extraordinarily beautiful Katarina Cas) including Laurence Kinlan and Fionnula Flanagan, is superb. This is a very fine comedy well worth the attention of a very wide audience!

Grady Harp

"The Guard" is a VERY unconventional story--mostly because the character Brendan Gleeson plays is so very confusing--in some ways a horrible policeman and in other ways quite extraordinary. On one hand, he sleeps with prostitutes, breaks rules, seems to not care the least about his job and steals some weapons when a kid discovers a hidden cache--the rest he sells to the IRA!! Yet, when it comes to investigating a case involving some cut-throat drug smugglers, he's oddly one of the only men on the force who refuses to be on the take.

This sort of bizarre dichotomous nature becomes VERY obvious when an FBI man (Don Cheadle) is sent to Ireland to help find the drug smugglers. Gleeson treats Cheadle with complete disdain--even overt disrespect. Their pairing is yet another fish out of water combination of two very, very dislike characters. Yet, according to formula, by the end they work together for good.

The film has lots of oddly humorous moments. None of them are laugh out loud moments but the film has quite a few clever moments--as well as MANY strange ones. The sum effect is an odd and uneven film but there's enough good to make it a film I recommend. LOTS of profanity but otherwise a film you could probably let your teens watch.