For the second time in the last five years, Brendan Gleeson almost stole the best performance of the year with his role in The Guard, and if it wasn’t for the fact that I saw The Artist in May, he would undoubtedly have been the best. As Sergeant Gerry Boyle – admittedly a very generously written character – Gleeson is at his cantankerous, lopsided best, marrying a brash, earthy masculinity with infinite amounts of charm bubbling under the surface and a disarming likability that makes even the most disdainful comments he makes utterly forgivable.
It is Boyle’s world that director John Michael McDonagh has chosen to set The Guard – his Western inspired, anti-hero driven comedy, which sits comfortably within the odd-couple police genre, but also turns the entire thing on its head. That world is bleak but beautiful Connemara, a sleepy Irish coastal town full of the kind of characters...
It is Boyle’s world that director John Michael McDonagh has chosen to set The Guard – his Western inspired, anti-hero driven comedy, which sits comfortably within the odd-couple police genre, but also turns the entire thing on its head. That world is bleak but beautiful Connemara, a sleepy Irish coastal town full of the kind of characters...
- 1/18/2012
- by Simon Gallagher
- Obsessed with Film
Chicago – Rarely has a film been more successfully driven by two great actors than John Michael McDonagh’s “The Guard.” The sheer incredible personalities of Brendan Gleeson and Don Cheadle give two of the most enjoyable performances of the year, bringing to life a clever, unapologetic script from their writer, who is also making a strong directorial debut. “The Guard” fell relatively flat at the box office but it’s the kind of quality comedy that will almost certainly find a big audience on the home market and was recently released on Blu-ray and DVD.
Blu-ray Rating: 4.0/5.0
Sergeant Gerry Boyle (Gleeson) opens the film by stealing drugs from the scene of a car accident, taking some acid, and staring at the water. Don’t worry. This is not an Irish “Bad Lieutenant,” even if it might have been in someone else’s hands. Boyle is an anti-hero. The guy who...
Blu-ray Rating: 4.0/5.0
Sergeant Gerry Boyle (Gleeson) opens the film by stealing drugs from the scene of a car accident, taking some acid, and staring at the water. Don’t worry. This is not an Irish “Bad Lieutenant,” even if it might have been in someone else’s hands. Boyle is an anti-hero. The guy who...
- 1/12/2012
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Release Date: Jan. 3, 2011
Price: DVD $30.99, Blu-ray $35.99
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Don Cheadle (l.) and Brendan Gleeson try to get along in The Guard.
The dark comedy-thriller film The Guard, starring Brendan Gleeson (Green Zone) and Don Cheadle (Brooklyn’s Finest), is a fish-out-of-water tale about murder, blackmail, drug trafficking and rural police corruption … and it’s really quite funny!
Written and directed by John Michael McDonagh (Ned Kelly), the R-rated crime movie opens on Sergeant Gerry Boyle (Gleeson), a small-town Irish cop with a confrontational personality, a subversive sense of humor, a dying mother, a fondness for prostitutes and only a passing interest in the international cocaine-smuggling case that has made it to his desk. This doesn’t go down too well with straight-laced FBI agent Wendell Everett (Cheadle), who has come to McDonagh’s village to work on the investigation. The two must join forces to take on the bad guys,...
Price: DVD $30.99, Blu-ray $35.99
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Don Cheadle (l.) and Brendan Gleeson try to get along in The Guard.
The dark comedy-thriller film The Guard, starring Brendan Gleeson (Green Zone) and Don Cheadle (Brooklyn’s Finest), is a fish-out-of-water tale about murder, blackmail, drug trafficking and rural police corruption … and it’s really quite funny!
Written and directed by John Michael McDonagh (Ned Kelly), the R-rated crime movie opens on Sergeant Gerry Boyle (Gleeson), a small-town Irish cop with a confrontational personality, a subversive sense of humor, a dying mother, a fondness for prostitutes and only a passing interest in the international cocaine-smuggling case that has made it to his desk. This doesn’t go down too well with straight-laced FBI agent Wendell Everett (Cheadle), who has come to McDonagh’s village to work on the investigation. The two must join forces to take on the bad guys,...
- 10/19/2011
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
Earlier this week I caught up with John Michael McDonagh, writer and director of the critically worshipped comedy of the year The Guard. He let HeyUGuys pick his brains about what makes him tick as a writer, how he feels about his prolific playwright brother Martin and how he managed to really capture the subtly dark Irish sense of humour.
The Guard is in UK cinemas Now! Our review can be seen here.
———–
HeyUGuys: What inspired The Guard?
I’d done a short film in 2000 called The Second Death and there was a supporting character, a pretty obnoxious guy and cantankerous and says really offensive things to people’s families. So that was at the forefront of my mind but I was sort of at a low ebb in the British film industry. I’d come off the back of a film that I really didn’t enjoy working on...
The Guard is in UK cinemas Now! Our review can be seen here.
———–
HeyUGuys: What inspired The Guard?
I’d done a short film in 2000 called The Second Death and there was a supporting character, a pretty obnoxious guy and cantankerous and says really offensive things to people’s families. So that was at the forefront of my mind but I was sort of at a low ebb in the British film industry. I’d come off the back of a film that I really didn’t enjoy working on...
- 8/20/2011
- by Rebecca-Jane Joseph
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
With The Guard out in UK cinemas tomorrow, we catch up with writer and director John Michael McDonagh about the making of the film…
Writer and director John Michael McDonagh’s debut feature, The Guard, could be described as a collision of buddy-cop thriller, western and black comedy. Its blending of slick, bitingly funny dialogue and familiar genre elements is so perfect, in fact, that it’s already made its way into our list of 2011’s best films.
We got to sit down to speak with McDonagh about the making of The Guard, and what he’s up to next.
We’ve been talking, back at the office, about what genre The Guard falls into. How would you describe it?
I call it a black comedy, because I don’t think the thriller element is big enough to call it a comedy thriller. And it’s sold as a buddy-cop comedy,...
Writer and director John Michael McDonagh’s debut feature, The Guard, could be described as a collision of buddy-cop thriller, western and black comedy. Its blending of slick, bitingly funny dialogue and familiar genre elements is so perfect, in fact, that it’s already made its way into our list of 2011’s best films.
We got to sit down to speak with McDonagh about the making of The Guard, and what he’s up to next.
We’ve been talking, back at the office, about what genre The Guard falls into. How would you describe it?
I call it a black comedy, because I don’t think the thriller element is big enough to call it a comedy thriller. And it’s sold as a buddy-cop comedy,...
- 8/17/2011
- Den of Geek
The Factory
Opens: 2011
Cast: John Cusack, Jennifer Carpenter, Ksenia Solo, Mae Whitman, Sonya Walger
Director: Morgan O'Neill
Summary: An obsessed cop is on the trail of a serial killer prowling the streets of Buffalo, New York. When his teenage daughter disappears, he drops any pretension and professional restraint he might have to get the killer.
Analysis: Shot almost three years ago now, Dark Castle had originally planned to release this thriller back in late 2009. However for reasons unspecified, it has been sitting on a shelf for some time and keeps getting delayed. In cases like these, the most obvious reason is usually the correct one - it stinks (eg. "Case 39"). The company certainly has had its fair share of box-office duds lately including "Whiteout," "Ninja Assassin," "The Losers," "Orphan" and "Splice".
Yet Cusack generally has good taste in projects, his last venture into horror was the surprisingly effective Stephen King...
Opens: 2011
Cast: John Cusack, Jennifer Carpenter, Ksenia Solo, Mae Whitman, Sonya Walger
Director: Morgan O'Neill
Summary: An obsessed cop is on the trail of a serial killer prowling the streets of Buffalo, New York. When his teenage daughter disappears, he drops any pretension and professional restraint he might have to get the killer.
Analysis: Shot almost three years ago now, Dark Castle had originally planned to release this thriller back in late 2009. However for reasons unspecified, it has been sitting on a shelf for some time and keeps getting delayed. In cases like these, the most obvious reason is usually the correct one - it stinks (eg. "Case 39"). The company certainly has had its fair share of box-office duds lately including "Whiteout," "Ninja Assassin," "The Losers," "Orphan" and "Splice".
Yet Cusack generally has good taste in projects, his last venture into horror was the surprisingly effective Stephen King...
- 12/31/2010
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
The Factory
Opens: 2011
Cast: John Cusack, Jennifer Carpenter, Ksenia Solo, Mae Whitman, Sonya Walger
Director: Morgan O'Neill
Summary: An obsessed cop is on the trail of a serial killer prowling the streets of Buffalo, New York. When his teenage daughter disappears, he drops any pretension and professional restraint he might have to get the killer.
Analysis: Shot almost three years ago now, Dark Castle had originally planned to release this thriller back in late 2009. However for reasons unspecified, it has been sitting on a shelf for some time and keeps getting delayed. In cases like these, the most obvious reason is usually the correct one - it stinks (eg. "Case 39"). The company certainly has had its fair share of box-office duds lately including "Whiteout," "Ninja Assassin," "The Losers," "Orphan" and "Splice".
Yet Cusack generally has good taste in projects, his last venture into horror was the surprisingly effective Stephen King...
Opens: 2011
Cast: John Cusack, Jennifer Carpenter, Ksenia Solo, Mae Whitman, Sonya Walger
Director: Morgan O'Neill
Summary: An obsessed cop is on the trail of a serial killer prowling the streets of Buffalo, New York. When his teenage daughter disappears, he drops any pretension and professional restraint he might have to get the killer.
Analysis: Shot almost three years ago now, Dark Castle had originally planned to release this thriller back in late 2009. However for reasons unspecified, it has been sitting on a shelf for some time and keeps getting delayed. In cases like these, the most obvious reason is usually the correct one - it stinks (eg. "Case 39"). The company certainly has had its fair share of box-office duds lately including "Whiteout," "Ninja Assassin," "The Losers," "Orphan" and "Splice".
Yet Cusack generally has good taste in projects, his last venture into horror was the surprisingly effective Stephen King...
- 12/31/2010
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
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