Went to see "The Guard" on Friday evening - many people had recommended it as the funniest film ever. I was also warned that there is a lot of bad language an un-PC comments, but sure I don't feckin' mind that! However, it did not live up to expectations for me.
The movie is about Garda Gerry Boyle (played by an excellent Brendan Gleeson) - haven't seen or heard about a Garda like him ever in Ireland. In fact the whole Garda force is made to look like a bunch of incompetent ejits, that they are all on the take, drink on duty, and are in general a foul-mouthed lazy lot. There are many funny moments in the movie, some involving a Derringer pistol, the IRA, a kid on a bike, and a milkshake. There are also some dark moments with murders, shootouts, drugs, guns, bribery, and corruption. It's hard to have a funny movie with so many violent incidents (Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels come to mind as the best I saw). The language is bad - but not so as to diminish the movie in any way. The humour was dark - some of the comedy was very predictable - in fact I can remember starting to laugh before the punch line in one scene. Overall - an OK movie. Lots of Irish interest as it was shot in Ireland and has a lot of Irish actors. Judge for yourself.
I was a little underwhelmed by The Guard. At one point Don Cheadle said to Brendan Gleeson - "Either you are very smart or very stupid" (or words to that effect). Which was what I felt about the movie.
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