Posted on Saturday, 5 November 2011

THE GUARD (McDonagh, 2011) - I love going to the movies on Friday afternoon. It gives you a good excuse to leave work a little early, and it really gives you the weekend feeling right away. It also generally predisposes me to like the movie I see, so I might be a bit too positive, but I really enjoyed this one. It suffers a bit if you put it next to IN BRUGES (which is tempting, considering they share a main actor and a genre, and that the directors are brothers), mostly because it doesn’t have Bruges or Colin Farrell, but it is tonally just as well balanced, and Gleeson is even better here than he was in the earlier movie. He’s an ass, really, racist and lewd, but he also knows the name of pretty much everyone in his community, and he’s a great son to his mother. Don Cheadle’s character is a bit less developed, but they work well together, and their unavoidable bonding doesn’t feel too forced. I’m not quite sure I like the ending - it felt a bit like an avoided decision - and while I enjoyed the conversations between the three baddies, they do feel a little out of place, but as a Friday afternoon movie? It was pretty much ideal. 

THE GUARD (McDonagh, 2011) - I love going to the movies on Friday afternoon. It gives you a good excuse to leave work a little early, and it really gives you the weekend feeling right away. It also generally predisposes me to like the movie I see, so I might be a bit too positive, but I really enjoyed this one. It suffers a bit if you put it next to IN BRUGES (which is tempting, considering they share a main actor and a genre, and that the directors are brothers), mostly because it doesn’t have Bruges or Colin Farrell, but it is tonally just as well balanced, and Gleeson is even better here than he was in the earlier movie. He’s an ass, really, racist and lewd, but he also knows the name of pretty much everyone in his community, and he’s a great son to his mother. Don Cheadle’s character is a bit less developed, but they work well together, and their unavoidable bonding doesn’t feel too forced. I’m not quite sure I like the ending - it felt a bit like an avoided decision - and while I enjoyed the conversations between the three baddies, they do feel a little out of place, but as a Friday afternoon movie? It was pretty much ideal. 

4 notes

  1. notesonfilms posted this