Monday, October 16, 2006

Movie Review- The Guardian

I went and viewed The Guardian in the theature. I attended with a group of friends from work. I had a great time but it had very little to do with this movie.

This movie stars Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher. Costner plays Ben Randall, a Coast Guard rescue diver. Kutcher is a hotshot diver want to be that is in Costner's class. Randall is a brooding instructor very similar to Gunny Highway (Clint Eastwood) in Heartbreak Ridge. Kutcher is a combination of Zack Mayo (Richard Gere) from An Officer and a Gentleman and Maverick (Tom Cruise) from Top Gun.

If the characters were the only retreads and not also the plot, then this movie might have been good. Unfortunately, they stole all of the major plots points from other movies. According to Greg, one of my friends I saw it with, "It is a cookie cutter movie of several others." An Officer and a Gentleman is copied a lot but it is not as good. There are definite scenes out of Top Gun in this film. It is a typical- "Yeah for our Armed Service Branch" movie. This one specializes on the Coast Guard.

The acting was not bad. There are scenes where Ashton Kutcher demonstrates some great talent that I did not know existed. It is almost worth the price of admission to see his acting growth. Sela Ward adds some other dramatic scenes being Randall's wife.

The women in my group of friends seemed to like this movie better than the men. There are a lot of scenes with no shirts and 6 pack abs that seem to get their attention. There are no such scenes that grab the male attention span. It reminded me of the Volleyball scene in Top Gun. If only there was Cool Fighter Jets flying around to distract us.

This movie was not horrible. I would not pay full price or even matinee price for it (which we did). It is a decent cheap movie or rental. I give it a solid C+. Most of this is for Kutcher's new found acting ability.

Here is what other reviews have to say:
IMDB Users Rating: 6.5/10
Rotten Tomatoes Critics- 37% -Rotten
Rotten Tomatoes Users- 80% -Fresh
E Online Review- C+

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