Has some funny scenes, particularly in the first 20 minutes and the very end when the style resembles more of a spaghetti western. Unfortunately the rest of the film is largely ineffectual when this is replaced with a toned down semi-documentary style, but Brendan Gleeson makes it worth watching even when it's getting too serious for it's own good. I just wish it was more like the beginning throughout.

not bad.

Hilariously politically incorrect, it will give you a few laughs, and some tenderness on the way.

This made me laugh.

Perfection

A familiar genre piece livened up by whipsmart dialogue, subversive humor, and a terrific starring turn by Brendan Gleeson. Pure irreverent entertainment at its finest.

A Brendan Gleeson show reel, but what a performance. Full of unexpected depth, pathos and humour. Well worth a watch, even if it isn't the most original thing you'll ever see.

Would surely offend and/or bore some, but I enjoyed immensely and I actually laughed, and most movies can only make me smile.

That was big fun. Just go and see it.

If you liked Brendan Gleeson in IN BRUGES, see this for a bit more of a similar type of humor... It's not "exceptional", but I quite liked it...

Enjoyable Irish black comedy starring a delightfully prejudiced cop played by Brendan Gleeson. He runs the show and drives the whole movie with his humor. The plot isn't deep but will keep you interested but the action scene at the end wasn't exactly anything to write home about. It's an entertaining 90 minutes that people who like snappy dialogue will enjoy.

Existential black comedy centered around criminals and police. It's an engaging ride and quite funny, but doesn't quite do enough to stand out. Still, not being the best is no reason to miss out on a good film, which this is.

Don Cheadle and Brendan Gleeson were great in this cop comedy. I really liked this film even though some of the accents were really strong in it and I had to really pay attention to what everyone was saying. Gleeson shined in this movie, I had not seen him in anything but Harry Potter so it was nice to see him without that weird "Mad" eye. I laughed really hard on several parts and just really had a good time. There are some great lines in this. Oh and this movie hates Dublin.

A potentially great film which seemed to fall slightly short in many respects, particularly consistency in direction and style. For instance, it's presented as a western for the first and last 5 minutes, but not really at all in between. Yeah, I get the point, but it's a bit jarring. Gleeson hands in one of his best performances and The Guard is infinitely recommendable for him alone.

If the rest of Ireland is as fun and unpredictable as Brendan Gleeson, I'm booking a ticket at Ryanair right now.

Somewhere between In Bruges and Hot Fuzz, but missing the subtlety of the former and the joke concentration of Fuzz. Still, a lot of the jokes are great, and Cheadle plays a wonderful straight man.

Not unlike his brother's IN BRUGES, J.M. McDonagh's THE GUARD seems both to embrace and reject genre; it's a comedy that's often dark and melancholy, a thriller that's often discursive, a film that sets up formulas which it proceeds to ignore. And yet, on its own cockeyed terms, it's quite engaging. Brendan Gleeson is spot on in the title role: wily, self-indulgent, dryly funny, and subtly sympathetic. Don Cheadle matches him throughout. Lightweight, but an amusing, and rather poignant, tale.

Was sometimes slow going but the two leads play off each other really well once it gets going.

Brilliant.. Brendan Gleeson is great as the unconventional cop