Synopsis
A former Secret Service agent grudgingly takes an assignment to protect a pop idol who's threatened by a crazed fan. At first, the safety-obsessed bodyguard and the self-indulgent diva totally clash. But before long, all that tension sparks fireworks of another sort, and the love-averse tough guy is torn between duty and romance.
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Cast
- Kevin CostnerFrank Farmer
- Whitney HoustonRachel Marron
- Gary KempSy Spector
- Bill CobbsBill Devaney
- Ralph WaiteHerb Farmer
- Tomas AranaGreg Portman
- Michele Lamar RichardsNicki Marron
- Mike StarrTony Scipelli
- Christopher BirtHenry
- DeVaughn NixonFletcher Marron
Recommendations
- 75
Chicago Sun-Times
I thought the basic situation in The Bodyguard was intriguing enough to sustain a film all by itself: on the one hand, a star who grows rich through the adulation that fans feel for her, and on the other hand, a working man who, for a salary, agrees to substitute his body as a target instead of hers. Makes you think. - 60
Empire
Its popularity continues to confound critics everywhere. - 60
Time Out London
Jackson's showy technique does little to lighten the over-earnest heroics and ponderous references to samurai, which are punctuated by assorted numbers and costume changes for Houston. Lawrence Kasdan, it seems, mulled over the first draft of his screenplay twenty years ago; it should have been left to languish in development purgatory. - 40
The New York Times
Deep inside the vague, unfocused excesses of The Bodyguard, the tale of a buttoned-down security agent hired to protect a glamorous pop star, there lurks the potential for a compelling film noir. - 40
Variety
No wonder this Lawrence Kasdan script has been on the shelf for more than a decade: In the custody of director Mick Jackson, it proves a jumbled mess, with a few enjoyable moments but little continuity or flow. - 40
TV Guide Magazine
A dreary, turgid melodrama. - 30
Washington Post
The Bodyguard is a classic of show-business hubris, a wondrously trashy belly-flop, proving that no amount of glittering sets and star power can save a story that should have been buried with McQueen. - 25
Entertainment Weekly
The Bodyguard is an outrageous piece of saccharine kitsch — or, at least, it might have been had the movie seemed fully awake. Instead, it’s glossy yet slack; it’s like Flashdance without the hyperkinetic musical numbers and with the romance padded out to a disastrously languid 2 hours and 10 minutes.
