The Guardian

On September 5th Kelly and I went to a preview screening of The Guardian, which comes out September 29th.  It was a free screening at The Charles.  It was in their second largest auditorium and it was about 85% full.  I had seen trailers for the film, but I still wasn't sure what to expect.

I didn't see Annapolis but somehow I see this movie as the Coast Guard's response.  I doubt either the Navy or Coast Guard really had much to do with the original idea of these movies, however both seemed to support them fully.  I think the Guardian will do better than Annapolis, which wouldn't be hard compared to its total gross of 17 mil.

The movie is kind of a standard old guy needs to retire but instead becomes teacher and then a new young kid thinks he is better but learns a lesson.  One of the problems with this film is it is pretty long and has too many things going on.  One of the weird parts was a 10 minute montage of working out.  It was done to look like it was a reality show with grainy video and it was a little jarring compared to the rest of the movie.

The story was pretty good and gave an interesting look into the Coast Guard rescue school.  It was also funny to watch some of the Coast Guard vs. Navy jokes.  A good chunk of the movie was very similar to the Perfect Storm, only from the rescuers standpoint.  There was some really good special effects and it was obvious they had buy in from the Coast guard from the on location filming.

The movie had some issues and tried to be a little sappy at points.  However it had some pretty good action scenes and decent acting.  I wouldn't run out to see it, but it is worth seeing.  I almost want to see Annapolis just to compare the two.