Saturday, September 03, 2011

Recommended: Don Cheadle and Brendan Gleeson in the self-consciously Irish cop story, The Guard

Brendan Gleeson by edelweisskoenig
Brendan Gleeson, a photo by edelweisskoenig on Flickr.

The Guard is a Gaelic takeoff on Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction. If formulaic, it's an entertaining hour and thirty-six.

Laughs filled the room at Robinson Film Center this week as portly Brendan Gleeson developed his obnoxious-but-loveable cop character.

It's a guy flick, I'd say. The schtick is gore aplenty with deadpan commentary from the not-easily-understood Irish.

The back and forth between the outrageous Irish guy and the low key African-American FBI agent, Don Cheadle, is played flat. As is the entire film. The viewer is not going to be handed the laughs; grab them as they slip by.

Cannot agree with rottentomatoes.com, where a ranking of 94% has been conjured. Yet I laughed out loud, repeatedly, and probably would have enjoyed more laughs if RFC had turned on the subtitles.

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