The Guardian
Sep. 30th, 2006 07:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jmc_bksSaw The Guardian this afternoon. Probably the best Kevin Costner movie I've seen since Dances with Wolves...not that I've seen that many, since I'm not a particular fan of his. Of course, I was predisposed to like the movie, because it's about Coast Guard rescue swimmers. I like the Coast Guard for a variety of reasons, not least of which is that I think they are often the forgotten service. They do a lot of jobs that most people wouldn't associate with the name. So it's cool that they are the heroes of the movie :)
Costner (Ben Randall) has aged very well -- in fact, I think he's much more attractive at ~50 than he was at 35. Kutcher (Jake Fischer) -- he's cute enough. The story itself -- which I will not be summarizing, because I can't figure out how to do so without serious spoilers -- reminded me in a lot of ways of an old western. Old, experienced tough guy breaking in the new, cocky hotshot. Well, actually, now that I think about it, that sounds a lot like Top Gun, really. And I think there was a little bit of an homage there too, especially with the sunglasses that Jake Fischer wore: they looked an awful lot like Maverick's. [How weird is it that I can still remember a character's name to a movie I haven't seen in years? It's one of those pop culture things that gets etched on your mind and won't erase.]
The Guardian is not a perfect movie, and there were a couple of scenes and several cheesy lines that could've been trimmed from the script. It is very much a crowd pleaser, though: the audience laughed and cheered a lot (more than any other movie I can remember), then clapped at the end as the credits rolled.
The ending credits included pictures of real Coasties and real rescues, including scenes from New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina.
PS -- Really liked the music, too.
PPS -- Saw previews for Stranger Than Fiction, The Prestige, One Good Year, Eragon, and some other stuff. I may have to see Eragon, even though the book did not impress me (DNF), because the cast includes John Malkovich and Jeremy Irons. The voice, oh, the voice!
Costner (Ben Randall) has aged very well -- in fact, I think he's much more attractive at ~50 than he was at 35. Kutcher (Jake Fischer) -- he's cute enough. The story itself -- which I will not be summarizing, because I can't figure out how to do so without serious spoilers -- reminded me in a lot of ways of an old western. Old, experienced tough guy breaking in the new, cocky hotshot. Well, actually, now that I think about it, that sounds a lot like Top Gun, really. And I think there was a little bit of an homage there too, especially with the sunglasses that Jake Fischer wore: they looked an awful lot like Maverick's. [How weird is it that I can still remember a character's name to a movie I haven't seen in years? It's one of those pop culture things that gets etched on your mind and won't erase.]
The Guardian is not a perfect movie, and there were a couple of scenes and several cheesy lines that could've been trimmed from the script. It is very much a crowd pleaser, though: the audience laughed and cheered a lot (more than any other movie I can remember), then clapped at the end as the credits rolled.
The ending credits included pictures of real Coasties and real rescues, including scenes from New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina.
PS -- Really liked the music, too.
PPS -- Saw previews for Stranger Than Fiction, The Prestige, One Good Year, Eragon, and some other stuff. I may have to see Eragon, even though the book did not impress me (DNF), because the cast includes John Malkovich and Jeremy Irons. The voice, oh, the voice!
