The Guardian

Although infused with an almost overwhelming air of familiarity, The Guardian ultimately comes off as an old-fashioned and irresistibly earnest piece of work that generally succeeds in spite of its reliance on exceedingly hoary cliches. Kevin Costner stars as Ben Randall, a legendary Coast Guard Rescue Swimmer who reluctantly accepts a job as an instructor after a routine mission goes disastrously awry – while Ashton Kutcher plays the brash young cadet that Ben takes a special interest in. Screenwriter Ron L. Brinkerhoff has blanketed The Guardian‘s midsection with a record number of training sequences, which, when coupled with the inclusion of several entirely needless subplots, certainly contributes heavily to the film’s bloated running time of almost two-and-a-half hours. And yet there’s something strangely engrossing about all of this; director Andrew Davis does a nice job of punching up some of the more eye-rollingly silly elements within Brinkerhoff’s script, while both Costner and Kutcher are able to effortlessly transform their archetypal characters into compelling, surprisingly textured figures. The authentic, genuinely thrilling rescue sequences cement The Guardian‘s status as a thoroughly agreeable crowd-pleaser, though it’s clear that the film is destined to hold very little appeal for viewers who are unable to buy into the well-worn premise.

*** out of ****