Synopsis
When a small-town Irish cop with a crass personality is partnered with a straight-laced FBI agent to bust an international drug-trafficking ring, they must settle their differences in order to take down a dangerous gang.
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Cast
- Brendan GleesonSergeant Gerry Boyle
- Don CheadleFBI agent Wendell Everett
- Liam CunninghamFrancis Sheehy
- Mark StrongClive Cornell
- Katarina ČasGabriela McBride
- David WilmotLiam O'Leary
- Rory KeenanGarda Aidan McBride
- Laurence KinlanPhotographer
- Dominique McElligottAoife O'Carroll
- Sarah GreeneSinead Mulligan
Recommendations
- 80
Boxoffice Magazine
The Guard may be a formula movie but McDonagh does wonders with the familiar character types and action climax. - 80
Variety
A crusty jewel of a performance by Brendan Gleeson goes a long way toward enlivening an otherwise routine tale of murder, blackmail, drug trafficking and rural police corruption in The Guard. - 80
Time Out
In narrative terms, it's mostly an excuse to work in a trio of crooks whose banter may be even better than that of our hero; Mark Strong's disgusted rant about paying off policemen and Liam Cunningham – led musings on Bobbie Gentry's "Ode to Billie Joe" are enough to justify the entire movie on their own. - 75
Slant Magazine
The Guard is John Michael McDonagh's caustically funny riff on cop and crime films. - 75
IndieWire
Only Boyle's unstoppable tendency to mouth off sustains the routine plot, but McDonagh pushes the limits of what he can make Gleeson say without making the crude nature of his asides overwhelm their comic potential. - 75
Entertainment Weekly
In this offbeat buddy-cop comedy, Don Cheadle, as an FBI agent trying to stop a drug ring, makes the perfect foil. - 75
The A.V. Club
Focusing the film on Gleeson was certainly the right choice. His performance is equal parts funny and unnerving, and he keeps viewers guessing about what drives the man and what he'll do next. - 70
Village Voice
One senses that The Guard is McDonagh's eulogy for the brusque, warts-and-all character of a passing generation of tough, working-class Irishmen, much as Clint Eastwood's "Gran Torino" was for vintage Americanism.
