95% The Guard

All Critics (115) | Top Critics (27) | Fresh (109) | Rotten (6)

Although The Guard is primarily a language romp, it's also a terrific showcase for veteran pug-faced character actor Brendan Gleeson.

Brendan Gleeson is a blooming marvel.

A laugh-out-loud comedy as hard as "The French Connection," a modern spaghetti Western on the windswept wastes of Ireland.

Crisp, acid-tongued and sharply acted, it's the sort of exercise in tangy Celtic cynicism that's become one of the Emerald Isle's most reliable imports.

There are few things finer in cinema than Brendan Gleeson's fat, happy face.

McDonagh's script is agile, darting between the ridiculous, the sage and the surprisingly sentimental. His love of language and the absurd has hints of the wisecracking Quentin Tarantino. But the story is decidedly more rooted in Ireland's loamy turf.

Gleeson's enigmatic character: really smart or really dumb?

Despite its flaws it remains entertaining, good for a few laughs.

This impressive directing debut is a well acted, caustically funny Irish thriller, a classic fish out of water comedy

For all of its seeming conventions, this surprisingly plot-heavy character drama is a wonderfully UNconventional cops-and-robbers picture.

McDonagh's older brother John Michael McDonagh has done him one better with the awesome new The Guard.

Has the promised elements -- though the action isn't very over-the-top -- but it has an inner depth that isn't normally found in films of its supposed type.

The film's more interested in spending quality time with this unlikely pair than solving crimes. Thanks to McDonagh's sparkling script and some charming central performances, you will be too.

It's not exactly Ireland's answer to Hot Fuzz, [but] the film is a darkly humorous take on the buddy cop genre that fans of the British comedy will enjoy.

The Guard is raw, modest and charming - maybe the only movie possessing all three characteristics.

Writer-director John Michael McDonagh's film plays like a cynical, foul-mouthed version of "In the Heat of the Night."

Amusingly subversive, it's filled with nasty, impudent Irish humor.

The Guard is a vulgar, Irish treat. While many movies recently have ended with contrivance and disappointment, McDonagh's ending is satisfying. And his choice of the last song is ideal. But the dialogue of The Guard still is a puzzlement to me. WTF?

The Guard is terrific entertainment, and I can't wait to re-watch it on Blu-ray, when I can turn on the subtitles and catch the handful of lines I couldn't locate under those thick brogues.

Funny and entertaining from first moment to last...

The ambiguous ending raises a smile rather than a frown, and leaves one hoping that the McDonagh brothers will continue to find charismatic and interesting roles for Brendan Gleeson in films to come.

It takes a special skill to make this sort of complex schematic coherent, and, the attractive performances aside, it doesn't always work here.

The Guard is the sort of movie that makes you smile and squirm, often within the confines of the same scene. It's certainly engaging, though many times I felt the film's stylistic choices overwhelmed its sense of itself.

Brendan Gleeson's performance in The Guard will be remembered as one of the best of 2011.

If you like your cops and robbers stories laced with Irish humour, you'll want to see The Guard, a film that blends crime and blarney in equal measure.

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

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