I went into this film with "In Bruges" expectations, but was sadly disappointed. Fine performances, but slow moving and only occasionally funny.

Pretty good. Brendan Gleeson is excellent but Don Cheadle struck me as remarkably flat for being a guy I like so much. It's not laugh out loud funny but some of the dialogue is totally on point (if you can make it out anyway HA!).

not bad.

Dublin and Bruges are awesome places, and if we speak about two films starring Brendan Gleeson, I can say I love both equally. :)

Fantastic performance by Brendan Gleeson.

Gleeson is great as always, and it's a lot of fun overall. The accents are incredibly thick, though, and it's difficult for an unexperienced American like myself to understand what people are saying much of the time. That's my fault, though.

A revisionist buddy-cop with tons of spaghetti western, Guard is a hell of an entertaining piece of profane, rude and stupid action flick: it's amazingly dumb and smart at the same time, and I guess we should blame Gleeson's witty performance for this incredible balance. These irish men really have got talent for this kind of black comedy.

7- recommended, good :: thought this would be more of a straight-up comedy

Brilliant.. Brendan Gleeson is great as the unconventional cop

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.

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.

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

Not once does it reach the levels of 'In Bruges' (too many jokes and too many that doesn't work) but pleasant enough company.

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

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.

The quirky dry comedy started off well, although it quickly lost its impact. I could have loved it for its comedic tone if they'd had the balls to properly commit to absurdism. But instead it developed a plot, got too mainstream, and a lot of jokes were just thrown thick and fast without much quality control. The end result was a bit underwhelming - it failed to go deep enough into either craziness, crime-fighting or character exploration to be something worthy of my time.

My main gripe is how every characters seems to be a smart-mouth, always ready with a witty comeback. Apart from that, I thought this was a fun movie without too many pretentions that is carried wonderfully by Gleeson.

Manages to be quite original even with the clichéd premise. Gleeson is great in the lead.

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.

Who knew there'd still be some room left for the unsung hero amid the constant deluge of comic book adaptations and action star vehicles. Generated by his disgracefully tactless demeanor and some amusing exchanges of dialogue, there's a lot to admire in Gleeson's performance, because you can tell he embraced his character without reservations. This was enough to overcome a lackluster storyline and some phoned-in direction.

somewhat hacky movie that gets by on the charisma of its two leads. has some genuinely funny bits, but most of its attempts at irreverent humor feel stale

Typical British humor carried by incredibly facetious writing and two great performances from Brendan Gleeson and Don Cheadle. Fans of McDonagh's previous work In Bruges may be disappointed that the Guard is actually funny and has a protagonist worth caring about.

Gleeson is good but his performance isn't enough to forgive the lame humor or rescue the dry script. A dud.