The Guardian

2006 "How do you decide who lives or who dies?"
6.9| 2h19m| PG-13| en| More Info
Released: 29 September 2006 Released
Producted By: A School Productions
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Synopsis

A high school swim champion with a troubled past enrolls in the U.S. Coast Guard's 'A' School, where legendary rescue swimmer, Ben Randall teaches him some hard lessons about loss, love, and self-sacrifice.

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Reviews

Tockinit not horrible nor great
SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie
Borgarkeri A bit overrated, but still an amazing film
AutCuddly Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,
declan-bebbington-10 Ashton Kutcher & Kevin Costner. Kelso & The fish dude from Waterworld. What an odd but perfect combination.I've always been a fan of Kutcher, but this excels him into new heights. The way he captures the emotion his character explores is like the star on a Christmas tree, gorgeous.I never went into this film with expectations of a classic however I was left in awe as I turned off my DVD player and my mind remained blown. Perhaps I am overselling this, but it is arguably my favourite movie of all time. So..Deal with it.Simply brilliant.
SnoopyStyle Ben Randall (Kevin Costner) is a veteran Coast Guard rescue swimmer. His wife Helen (Sela Ward) is leaving him. He loses his friend during a deadly accident in a rescue. After injuries and possible PTSD, he is forced to be an instructor at the Coast Guard "A" school. The new recruits include an arrogant champion swimmer Jake Fischer (Ashton Kutcher) who is more interested in the swimming records. He meets Emily Thomas (Melissa Sagemiller) at a wedding. Ben is unconvinced of Jake's commitment and then he uncovers his hidden past.This starts with a couple of thrilling rescues. It puts the movie in a compelling spot. Then it turns into a traditional 'An Officer and A Gentleman'. It's a little too on-the-nose especially with Jake's story. I would have preferred a more interesting Jake performance. It also goes on a little too long. This shouldn't be over two hours long. It needs a bit of tightening including the climax. I may even suggest dropping the love interest but this is still Hollywood. It's a movie that starts strong and stays compelling despite its oddly strict-formulaic story.
Yaroslav Zaitsev (yarik83) So last night I got around to watching guardian. Mixed feelings. For starters it was not necessary to make that movie. There has been at least 20 like it and another 100 or so similar to it. The story itself was played out so many times that it was not interesting to watch at all. So lets start at the beginning. We have Kevin Costner.. OK I can live with that. He passes for a USCG swimmer. Then we have Ashton "Flamboyant" Kutcher in the same movie playing an overachiever. What? I mean seriously what? We can not take him serious, it would be like watching Jim Carey do a Kung Fu movie. You can not put Ashton in shoes of a serious role and expect us to believe and more importantly him to perform. That 70's show pretty much set his career of a goofball. Much like Daniel Radcliffe is forever Harry Potter, he is very much the same a Kelso. So that aside lets have a look at the story. Blah blah some guy having family problems, a sailor, big waves, people drowning, saving, his team dies, he needs time to recover, teaches some greenhorns, one of his students is weak, one is an overachiever, blah blah test of character, both together, one retires, dies and other guy continues then drops everything for "love". Have we not seen it before? Have we not seen it before many many times? Then of course the "green screen"... seriously? Why ohh why do people constantly resort to really cheezy computer animation. Watching this movie was like eating glass while sitting on glass and other people throwing glass at you. Painful to eyes, painful to ears because of dialogue and overall I think this movie deserves no more than a 4/10 even with Costner in it. This movie could have been a 10 or at least a 8 by my book if following criteria was met: Graphics equal to or better than what is shown on Discovery channel Alaska Crab Fishing shows. Actual props were used rather than green screen or at least less green screen. Different story that we have not yet heard. No Ashton. I bet you what really happened was Ashton got all upset about people not taking him seriously so he had a movie made just for him to fulfill his boy fantasy of being a tough guy and since nobody else wanted to be in the movie with him he had to beg fading movie stars to at least give his movie some credibility. Good thing that its only a rental and is on its way back to Netflix.
someofusarebrave This could definitely have been a better movie.It could have been a worse one too, but. Well.I am not trying to denounce what this movie attempted to do. I think it is brave to attempt to trace a frakked-up teenager's journey from a loud-mouthed, grieving kid whose sadness has turned to anger, into an excellent, brave and capable human being.I just happen to think that process is a lot more complicated than suddenly becoming great at something I happened to be great at anyway.I also think it's a lot easier to offer the sort of absolution, forgiveness and redemption this Teacher is offering to his Pupil when the pupil happens to excel at one of the things he is being taught.I think it's high time we as a society stop deeming sports skillz the kind of talent that makes somebody 'great' as a person, rather than simply as an athlete.Growing up as a man has got to come to mean more than succeeding at football or baseball--or, in this case, swimming. It has got to come to mean more than successfully throwing a ball or running faster than anybody else around. This movie only offers half the story.Yes, Ashton Kutchers' character does try to reach beyond the typical athlete persona by attempting to become a member of the Coast Guard.However, once there, he does nothing but screw up.Because he is "great" at swimming, however, he never once has to face the consequences. He simply sails along getting into barfights, snarling at his supposed teammates and mouthing off to his superiors.All in all, he clearly has some ambivalence about being a "hero." None of that matters because he is a great swimmer ergo he seems presumed by all to have every right to get into a 'few minor scraps' along the road to the sure success his superiors all predict for him.This cute, small-town white boy is thus taken under the wings of several older, good-ole-boy types and made into a man--or their version.Somehow, he is also surrounded by a team of other boys--and teachers--who look exactly like him. Oh, there is one black student and one black teacher just for the sake of paying lip service to diversity...but they have about six lines combined. The ONLY female rescue swimmer has got literally just about one line during the movie.The screenwriters pay no attention to the difficulties that any of these people would surely face in any military institution, nor to the complexity of the issues surrounding their entrance into it.Of course not.This is an easy movie, designed to provide easy answers to complex questions. It is designed to trace the 'hero's journey' of one white boy who really does not so much deserve the opportunities he is given.It is designed to give a second chance to a man who would not need it if he had not given in to his depression and hidden out for a year to begin with, then decided the solution to his internal agony was to "save" other people. This has never in the his- and her- stories of the world provided an effective solution to intense grief.Too bad we still have so many movies that suggest otherwise.