IMDb plot summary: An unorthodox Irish policeman with a confrontational personality is partnered with an up-tight F.B.I. agent to investigate an international drug-smuggling ring.
Directed by John Michael McDonagh. Starring Brendan Gleeson, Rory Keenan, Don Cheadle, and Liam Cunningham.
Writer/director John Michael McDonagh is the brother of writer Martin McDonagh, and you can see definite similarities in their subject matter and sense of humor, though John's humor in The Guard is much less obvious than some of Martin's work. This film works best when it latches onto the humor and is least successful when it follows obvious crime film tropes. Brendan Gleeson's character isn't a likable protagonist, per se, but watching him push his way past a corrupt system is often satisfying. There's also a very clever bite to the dialogue which yields some very amusing scenes between Gleeson and the people around him. Take away that sense of humor, and the characters are familiar, the beats are familiar, the stakes are familiar. There's enough to hold my interest, and fans of the crime genre are likely to appreciate it even more, but it does hit its limit for me.
How it entered my Flickchart:
The Guard > To Be or Not to Be
The Guard < Whip It
The Guard < The Hunt (2020)
The Guard < I Love You, Man
The Guard > Hans Christian Andersen
The Guard > The Wrestler
The Guard > Critters
The Guard > Alice (1990)
The Guard < My Favorite Year
The Guard > The Client
The Guard > October Sky
Final spot: #1470 out of 3341, or 56%.
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