Runtime: 96 minutes
Directed by: John Michael McDonagh
Starring: Brendan Gleeson, Don Cheadle, Mark Strong, Liam Cunningham, Fionnula Flanagan
From: Quite a few Irish and UK companies
Sometimes I should be better in selecting films. That goes for popular modern comedies of the past 10 to 15 years... the rare few I've seen haven't always blown wind up my skirt or even were considered “funny” by me. I was hoping this film (chosen because of high ratings and it being an Irish production filmed in Ireland as appropriate St. Patrick's Day entertainment) would be fine considering it had some names I knew and a familiar yet solid-sounding premise of two opposite law enforcement members having to work together to crack a case, in this case an international drug ring.
Unfortunately, this wasn't that funny to me aside from sporadic laughs. A major issue is that the lead Irish man we follow (played by Brendan Gleeson) is not a charming rogue cop sort of character... instead I found him to be quite a boor-a rude and unpleasant A-hole who I did not really enjoy following-the fact that he's also a weirdo and a racist did not help his cause. A crying shame, because acting-wise there's no carping about Gleeson's performance. The straight-laced FBI agent played by Don Cheadle was far more tolerable to me but the movie does not rise above “meh” despite the general idea being fine and me having no issue with Mark Strong playing-shock of shocks-a villain.
This has two other things I don't particularly care for, which is “awkward humor” and “F bombs being dropped way too often”, which are two of the many reasons why I don't watch as many modern movies in general as many others on Letterboxd. The Guard falling flat for me is just something I'll shrug my shoulders about and move on; it did present rural Ireland and there's one scene where Irish is spoken, so it at least provided the sights and sounds for last night. If only I did not regret finding another motion picture from the land of shamrocks & leprechauns that was more likely to kiss the Blarney Stone, so to speak.
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