Average Rating: 5.2/10
Reviews Counted: 145
Fresh: 54 | Rotten: 91
The Coast Guard gets its chance for a heroic movie tribute, but The Guardian does it no justice, borrowing cliche after cliche from other (and better) military branch movies.
Average Rating: 5.2/10
Critic Reviews: 35
Fresh: 11 | Rotten: 24
The Coast Guard gets its chance for a heroic movie tribute, but The Guardian does it no justice, borrowing cliche after cliche from other (and better) military branch movies.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.7/5
User Ratings: 402,530
A decorated Coast Guard search and rescue specialist still haunted by the death of his teammates during a disastrous mission off the coast of Alaska is charged with the task of training the next generation of Coast Guard rescue swimmers in director Andrew Davis' ocean-bound adventure drama. Ben Randall (Kevin Costner) was the best swimmer of his graduating class, but upon surfacing as the sole survivor of an Alaskan rescue mission attempted during a Category Three storm, his outlook on life has
Sep 29, 2006 Wide
Jan 23, 2007
$55.0M
Buena Vista Pictures
All Critics (152) | Top Critics (36) | Fresh (56) | Rotten (95) | DVD (19)
Kutcher and Costner have a kind of visual chemistry that's just as elusive as the other kind. And the connection and contrast between them remind us that Hollywood isn't as forgiving of older male actors as we like to think.
Kutcher may soon be ready to anchor a Hollywood sea voyage. But for now, he's still a touch out of his depth.
The Guardian does the job required: nothing more, nothing less, and nothing fancy.
The Guardian has the feel of a Sunday feature in a newspaper more than a drama.
Costner is suitably Costneresque -- that is, low-key, stoic, and capable of a wry turn here or there.
A workmanlike story, an unusual setting, a game cast and a righteous message kind of get lost in the film's excesses. And an imbalance in the leads hampers this by-the-book service-academy drama.
There's nothing particularly wrong with it, it's just very tedious. Originality doesn't seem to be important and maybe it doesn't have to be as The Guardian is dealing with something true but what that something is the filmmakers seem to know.
"The Guardian" is a pro-military propaganda movie from Hollywood that attempts to mask its agenda behind the life-saving rhetoric of Coast Guard rescue swimmers.
It was pollution.
Waterlogged rescue flick is nothing new.
There is a breadth of quality about the acting, including a fine performance from Sela Ward as Ben's estranged wife - making a lot more of her role than her meagre scripting suggests.
Overly bloated action drama that is predictable and drawn out.
Though the structure and conventions are familiar, the dialogue is believable enough that for the span of 139 minutes we're willing to forget that these are actors mouthing lines.
Will definitely rescue some moviegoers from the post-summer doldrums, but someone should have told Davis that there's going to be casualities if he leaves audiences in the water that long.
The Guardian isn't as boring as Annapolis and SWAT, but it's still a feature-length training montage about kids learning the importance of taking it to the limit.
...an old-fashioned, irresistibly earnest piece of work...
A well-judged performance by Kevin Costner brings drama to this actioner.
I'd have given it an A-. But it goes on & on, off the deep end into the even hokier. But since it choked me up earlier on, I'm calling it a weak B .
...neither sincerity nor big-name stars are enough to save this mundane, by-the-numbers production from a watery grave.
The Guardian is an ordinary movie about extraordinary people.
This character-driven drama about redemption feels fresh, mostly due to good storytelling and two fine lead performances
It was a long film but I felt they didn't really show anything. There was no strong story line here, just two characters who have been through bad times trying to come out of it. It was very predictable and I just did not care what happened to them. It was sad thinking of what they had been through but there's not much
October 14, 2006Super Reviewer
A stirring, exciting, thrilling and exhilarating movie. A spectacular and edge of your seat action-packed drama. Great rescue/action sequences that are just plain gripping. It's a remarkable, riveting and satisfying film. Ashton Kutcher and Kevin Costner deliver powerful and awesome performances. Brilliant, sure-fire,
January 26, 2007Super Reviewer
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