Tuesday 24 January 2012

Angry Movie Lurker Honest Review 63: The Guard 2011 (4 STARS).

...it's gets 5 STARS if you're Irish because there's some things you understand better......


Sergeant Gerry Boyle is a small-town Irish cop with a confrontational personality, a subversive sense of humor, a dying mother, a fondness for prostitutes, and absolutely no interest whatsoever in the international cocaine-smuggling ring that has brought straight-laced FBI agent Wendell Everett to his door.

Brendan Gleeson plays Gerry Boyle, a garda sergeant in a small village in Connemara outside Galway who to put it mildly is a bit of a git but a funny git, this movie made me laugh quite a lot because maybe I understood it by better by being Irish but it's over the top with it's storyline but maybe nothing else, a very enjoyable movie and with a good ending.

There are good performances from Mark Strong, Liam Cunningham and Don Cheadle and from the the Irish cast but Brendan who taught at my secondary school before acting got him is brilliant and on top form.

Like Gerry says "Like the fat man said, if you have to be careful not to drink too much, it's because you're not to be trusted when you do". 

The guard in the title refers to the national police force of the Republic of Ireland who are called Garda Siochana which literally means "Guardians of the Peace".

46 comments:

  1. I've be toying with watching this on Sky, you've made my mind up. Cheers.

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  2. This was my favourite movie of 2011. Whether you're Irish or not, I think it's worthy of 5 stars. Brendan Gleeson really is that good.

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  3. Have to admit, Brendan Gleeson must be one of the best supporting actors of recent times, if not ever; he is so adaptable and pops up all over the place...brilliant stuff.

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  4. With that kind of review I will have to check it out!

    Christopher

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  5. With a review like this and with this rating it wouldn't be wise if we miss the movie.

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  6. Good review. I've been wanting to see this.

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  7. I was in two minds about this film but I'll definitely give it a go after this review.

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  8. Brendan Gleeson always elevates any film he is in. I watched In Bruges for the first time last week and that has rocketed straight into my top ten films. Gleeson and Farrell are magic in it.

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    1. In Bruges was brilliant but terrible for the Bruges tourist board.....

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  9. Sounds like it is pretty good.

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  10. Big fan of both Gleeson and Cheadle, might have to check it out.

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  11. This film is one of my best! Now following!

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  12. Just added it tomy LoveFilm list. Thanks, Fran!

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  13. One of the best movies I've seen in last year, I love it :)

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  14. Whats up with the text?
    Good post thought!

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    1. When I write on a word document it sometimes does this....

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  15. It's good to see Don Cheadle getting work.

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  16. never heard of this one, I like Gleeson (Especially in TROY), but can't stand Cheadle

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  17. I'll watch anything with Don Cheadle. lol.

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  18. But I'm not Irish. We shall see!

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  19. This one slipped through my radar, will have to give it a watch, even if I'm not irish

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  20. I'll have to check it out. I looked up his bio ( http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0322407/bio )and it turns out I've seen the majority of his movies, but the only one I really remember him in is The General.

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  21. I'm a big Cheadle fan. Might have to check it out.

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  22. Very funny movie! Very nice, dry humor.
    I loved it already after the first 5 minutes.

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  23. Will most definitely have to check this out , thanks for the review!

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  24. Sounds like I'll have to check this out!

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  25. I just checked and they have this on Amazon instant. I'll be watching this tonight if I have time or this weekend. I first saw Gleeson in The Treaty on the tellybox and in Kingdom of Heaven and then he was in Michael Collins, except Liam Neeson played Michael in that one. And this is set in Connemara and if the village is Clifden, I'll probably cry a wee bit just to see it. Thank you so much Angry, you've just made an Irish girl whose in need of a laugh happy.

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  26. Will check it out Fran sounds good.

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  27. I'm going to tell you this here because it's the only way I have of communicating with you. It's possible that Hubby also has colon cancer. They found it this morning and I'm horribly frightened. So if I miss commenting, I'm at hospital. I may not have time to write a post to tell people where I'm at. I'm going to tell a few other of my blogger buddies via email and twitter so those of you I care about know what's going on. I am posting tomorrow though for sure.

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    1. My email is deadmoneyguy@yahoo.co.uk Anne, email anytime.

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  28. never even heard of this movie. but sounds like hot fuzz

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  29. I was like...I've never heard of this one but then realized it's an Irish film and I was like,,Ohhh. Thanks to the power of the interweb I shall check this out one day.

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  30. Great sounding film....I've liked a lot of his other stuff so this should rock as well

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  31. Was it ever released in the US? Or was it very limited release?

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  32. Now that's high praise indeed; definitely one to look out for.

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  33. Interesting, might check this out..

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  34. i might catch this sometime...

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  35. it's a shame i'm not irish :D

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  36. Man, I'm missing out so much by not visiting the cinema time and again.

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  37. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  38. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  39. Absolutely cracking film!!! Way too drunk when watching it though so will have to watch it again when sober.

    Sorry for the deleted comments, they were a drunken mess!
    ;0)

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  40. This movie is definitely on my to-watch-list.
    Thanks for your review!

    Cheers
    Monty

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