The Guardian (2006)

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Pretty Good

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

There is nothing too much original about The Guardian. It is a tale of veteran coast guard Ben Randall (Kevin Costner) who after a tragic rescue operation and a troubled marriage is assigned to train new recruits at coast guard training school.He meets cocky Jake Fischer (Ashton Kutcher) a swimming champion who has joined the coast guard training and who starts a casual relationship with another teacher while in training.At first Ben and Jake do not get along but gradually come to respect each other especially as Jake opens up about his past.The film is just too formulaic, you have seen elements of it in films like Top Gun or Backdraft. Director Andrew Davis excels in the coast guard rescue scenes but too much of the film is choppy.

Ashton Kutcher & Kevin Costner. Kelso & The fish dude from Waterworld. What an odd but perfect combination.I've always been a fan of Kutcher, but this excels him into new heights. The way he captures the emotion his character explores is like the star on a Christmas tree, gorgeous.I never went into this film with expectations of a classic however I was left in awe as I turned off my DVD player and my mind remained blown. Perhaps I am overselling this, but it is arguably my favourite movie of all time. So..Deal with it.Simply brilliant.

Version I saw: UK DVD releaseActors: 6/10Plot/script: 5/10Photography/visual style: 6/10Music/score: 5/10Overall: 6/10You can imagine the production meeting. Costner and Kutcher were middle-sized names, with their own followings, so it seemed reasonable to put them together in a middle-budget film. Costner has moved on from action heroes and romantic leads to grizzled military types and father figures, and Ashton makes an effective cocky young recruit who will grow under his tutelage. Throw in the idea of shining the spotlight on a less glamorous area of the military, and the rest pretty much writes itself. Basically, it's An Officer and a Gentleman with helicopter sea rescuers instead of air force pilots. It's really that blatant.Presumably that is why they gave it to comparative screen writing novice Ron L Brinkerhoff, and he does a decent job of putting tab A into slot B, adding in some (I assume) well-researched details that enhance the Coastguard training academy scenes, and finessing some of the character interactions with a bit of extra metaphor and frisson. The whole thing plays to a moderately right-wing middle-American patriotic audience, with a soundtrack comprising mostly pop and country music.Both of the leads are accomplished but not inspired. Costner has the experience and charisma to come across as likable even while playing the unnecessarily cruel, hard taskmaster, and Kutcher does better as the cocky douchebag than the sensitive hero, but he stops well short of disgracing himself.The director is a safe bet. Andrew Davis is probably best known for action thrillers Under Siege and The Fugitive. He brings his skill with those action set-pieces to the couple of (presumably quite expensive) helicopter rescue scenes, generating a really visceral sense of the danger and discomfort. He can also be trusted to not make a mess of the character interaction dialogue scenes.I found the whole reasonably diverting, if rather forgettable. One to watch when you are feeling a bit fragile, and not in the mood for anything at all challenging.

This was a terrific movie and one of my favorite Kevin Costner movies. In a nutshell, it is about training for life in the U.S. Coast Guard. Costner plays a Coast Guard legend, who, after a tragic and traumatic accident at sea, gets assigned to teaching and takes hotshot recruit Ashton Kutcher, who had been a swim champion (and who has a similar incident in his past) under his wing as his protégée. The bulk of the movie deals with the classes, swimming, rescue scenes, and the recruits' going out at night. I thought those scenes were hilarious, especially when Kutcher tries to pick up chicks.I think the best parts of this well-done film were the rescue scenes (which were brilliantly filmed), the character development, the classroom scenes in the pool, and the interactions with Costner and Kutcher. I also loved the legend of "The Guardian. Anyone who loves the stars will love this movie.*** out of ****