The Guardian Review
Super Bowl counterprogramming continues with this, the review of Andrew Davis’ The Guardian. I’ll be watching The Rock’s Gridiron Gang momentarilly. But back to The Guardian. I really like Davis, some of the time, and this flick actually won me over. I’m a fan of Costner, when he’s in the right role, and with him as veteran “swimmer”, the legendary Coast Guard-ian Ben Randall, he excels.
Give him an accident and force him into training some up-and-coming recruits (enter one dashing Ashton Kutcher) and you’ve got what seems like a cliche, but ends up being entertaining. While it goes by the numbers, including a very unnecessary ending, it’s not without heart. It also includes one of my favorite new actors, Dule Hill from USA’s Psych, who unfortunately was neither funny nor much of a character in this film. Still, the training montages are a’ight, the tension between Costner and Kutcher good, and the “water” scenes interesting. I really enjoy Kutcher, I thought he was great in The Butterfly Effect, and he has the makings of one of Hollywood’s elite. Recommended to all, provided you won’t pull a Bake and complain that this would have been a better film if it were made with unknowns.