Guard

Theatrical Release Date: 2011 07 29 (USA - Limited)

UPC: 043396392137

Studio: Sony Pictures

MPAA Rating: R   Contains:[Violence, Profanity, Sexual Situations, Drug Content]

Summary: Confrontational Irish cop Gerry Boyle (Brendan Gleeson) reluctantly teams with uptight FBI agent Wendell Everett (Don Cheadle) to take down a gang of international drug traffickers in this comedy thriller co-starring Mark Strong, Rory Keenan, and Liam Cunningham. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Category: Comedy

Awards: Film Presented – Sundance Film Festival Film Presented – Tribeca Film Festival Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Original Screenplay – British Academy of Film and Television Arts

Features: Outtakes
Deleted & extended scenes
The second death short film
Commentary with director John Michael McDonagh and actors Don Cheadle & Brendan Gleeson

Guard

Format: DVD

Release Date: 01/03/2012

Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Cinemascope

Audio: DD5.1 Dolby Digital 5.1

Runtime: 96 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Language(s) English

Subtitles: Spanish,Portuguese

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Chapters: Disc #1 -- Guard
1. Chapter 1 [6:51]
2. Chapter 2 [5:45]
3. Chapter 3 [3:48]
4. Chapter 4 [10:22]
5. Chapter 5 [2:52]
6. Chapter 6 [4:18]
7. Chapter 7 [3:49]
8. Chapter 8 [9:00]
9. Chapter 9 [3:25]
10. Chapter 10 [3:47]
11. Chapter 11 [9:17]
12. Chapter 12 [6:03]
13. Chapter 13 [6:15]
14. Chapter 14 [6:42]
15. Chapter 15 [5:17]
16. Chapter 16 [1:37]

Perry Seibert

Some actors are like bacon -- they make anything they're in even better. Brendan Gleeson is just about the best cinematic bacon in the world, but with The Guard, he gets to be the main course -- and a flavorful dish it is indeed. He plays Gerry Boyle, an honorable cop with a taste for alcohol, drugs, and hookers, who also makes time to be a good son to his dying mother. Writer/director John Michael McDonagh establishes Boyle's personal code with the opening scene of the movie, involving Boyle's darkly comic take on a fatal car accident, then slowly lets us see how good and smart a man this seemingly corrupted small-town cop actually is. Boyle is put to the test when by-the-book FBI agent Wendell Everett (Don Cheadle) arrives in Ireland tracking down three drug traffickers, who are supposedly going to ship a half-billion dollars in cocaine through the town's port. Boyle and Everett clash initially -- the Irishman's seemingly casual racism and frumpy appearance don't sit well with the uptight, honest American -- but Everett slowly catches on that Boyle knows much more than he lets on. The Guard is a perfectly solid crime story, but this is a character study first and foremost, and with Gleeson front and center throughout, we're treated to a hilarious and touching portrait of stereotypical John Wayne manliness mixed with Irish sensitivities and Charlie Sheen's idea of relaxation. Gleeson revels in this meaty part, bringing out Boyle's loving side in the conversations with his mother with just as much authenticity as when he showcases the man's wild side during a romp with two prostitutes. The whole cast is pitch-perfect, and Cheadle offers flawless comic support, but this is Gleeson's show from beginning to end. As far as difficult tones go, dark comedy is one of the toughest to capture. McDonagh's deft screenplay manages the tricky feat of actually being lightly dark, shading its main character just enough so that we're surprised how much we care about what will happen to him during the inevitable final shoot-out that ends the movie. In that way and many others, the film resembles In Bruges, which was written and directed by Martin McDonagh, who is not only the executive producer here but also the brother of the director. Don't be thrown off by the thick Irish accents, The Guard has a stellar lead performance, some very big laughs, and manages to offer an original take on the hard-boiled detective -- one of the most enduring archetypes in movie history. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Paraic Nialand  Actor 
John Patrick Beirne  Actor 
Liam O'Conghaile  Actor 
Christopher Kilmartin  Actor 
Don Cheadle  Executive Producer 
Ed Guiney  Producer 
Ralph Kamp  Executive Producer 
John Michael McDonagh  Director 
John Michael McDonagh  Screenwriter 
Tim Smith  Executive Producer 
Calexico  Composer (Music Score) 
Andrew Lowe  Producer 
Paul Brett  Executive Producer 
Martin McDonagh  Executive Producer 
Lenore Zerman  Executive Producer 
Flora Fernandez-Marengo  Producer 
Chris Clark  Producer 
David Nash  Executive Producer 
Brendan Gleeson  Actor 
Don Cheadle  Actor 
Rory Keenan  Actor 
Liam Cunningham  Actor 
David Wilmot  Actor 
Mark Strong  Actor 
Fionnula Flanagan  Actor 
Dominique McElligott  Actor 
Sarah Greene  Actor 
Katarina Cas  Actor 
Wale Ojo  Actor 
Ronan Collins  Actor 
Conor Moloney  Actor 
Laura Hitchings  Actor 
Sharon Kearney  Actor 
Declan Mannion  Actor 
David Pearse  Actor 
Laurence Kinlan  Actor 
Michael Og Lane  Actor 
Owen Sharpe  Actor 
Eamonn Olwill  Actor 
Yuyang Shields  Actor 
Mark O'Halloran  Actor 
Pat Shortt  Actor 
Gay McKeon  Actor 
Gary Lydon  Actor 
Mary Corcoran  Actor 
Darren Healy  Actor 
Colm Gannon  Actor 
Johnny McDonagh  Actor 
Dominick Hewitt  Actor 
Giedrius Nagys  Actor 
Dermot Healy  Actor 
Gary Robinson  Actor 

Country: Ireland