95% The Guard

All Critics (74) | Top Critics (21) | Fresh (70) | Rotten (4)

"The Guard" is not the most original buddy-cop movie you'll see, but it well may be one of the most entertaining.

"The Guard" himself may be no angel, but his movie is a wee slice of heaven.

Rich with inspired musings on pop culture, literature, philosophy, race, sex.

This black comedy needed to be a whole lot blacker and funnier.

Brendan Gleeson, as beefily Irish an actor as anyone since Victor McLaglen, is always believable and frequently hilarious.

When it's over it evaporates, leaving only the acrid smoke of its dialogue and the memory of Gleeson reducing lesser mortals to cinders.

The Guard, like its unconventional hero, is a true original.

Spiteful, ironic and human in turn, The Guard is an entertainment that makes most of the year's American comedies look impoverished, and in Gleeson it has a palpable star.

"The Guard" is violent, profane and funny.

The reasons it's worth seeing are Gleeson's impish performance and the sparkling dialogue, which marries Irish blarney to Tarantino-lite philiosophising.

There is something smug and roguish-by-rote about the usual Gleeson performance. Yet who else could play this protagonist?

The always-unbeatable Gleeson is on simply outstanding form, conjuring a character both dignified and ridiculous, heroic and hardly bothered.

Assured and well-written, it may totter uncertainly in the third act but it's a pleasure to listen to a script with such an ear for shocking insult and knowing offence.

Offering shades of Sidney Poitier's In The Heat of the Night, The Guard is a good character study with an above average script.

The funniest action comedy for a long time.

There aren't a whole lot of leading roles out there for guys that look like a 56-year-old version of me. So there should be no wonder why I like the guy and want to see him do well.

A hugely entertaining but frustratingly disorganised film, packed with priceless moments which never quite coalesce into a rewarding whole.

It may be well-worn territory, but thanks to the awards-worthy leading performance from Brendan Gleeson and a sharp, witty script, The Guard is a winner.

It's great to watch Brendan Gleeson have his fun at the expense of all the other characters.

Among the most purely entertaining films of the year, which cuts its laughter with a dose of Celtic melancholy.

While the film treads close to caricature at times, with standard-issue country cop vs. city cop conflicts, and a trio of self-consciously quirky baddies, McDonagh's wildly inventive writing compensates for any boilerplate aspects in the plot.

Brendan Gleeson is always worth seeing, but there are much better places to see him.

The film has visual and verbal flair, spry energy and deep wit. In a year of not-so-funny films and dull crime stories, keep an eye out for "The Guard."

Like an Irish version of "In the Heat of the Night," the profane and frequently hilarious "The Guard" watches the sparks fly as a smart African-American detective teams up with an unapologetically racist County Galway policeman.

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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_guard_2011/

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