The Guard

I had the pleasure of going to a special preview of this on Tuesday night followed by a Q & A with the director, John Micheal McDonagh.
Being an irish movie i was veru eager to see it, and it was released weeks ago in ireland which meant a long wait while my friends told me how good and hilarious it is, so an early preview was great!

I sat in the cinema, a little nervous to be honest, as i really wanted it to be as funny as the reviews from ireland promised. The movie was introduced and we were informed that it had overtaken one of my personal favourite movies, In Bruges, which incidently is director by the brother of John Micheal McDonagh.

The movie started, and from the opening scene i dont think i stopped laughing throughout. The plot consists of unconventional and oftewn questionable Sergent from a small village in the west of Ireland gets caught up in a international drug smuggling operation that brings FBI agent played by Don Cheadle to help.

You can tell from the off that McDonagh has an ear for the irsih sense of humour and captures Gleasoos almost happy-go-luck Garda to a tee, but the star of this is Gleason. Brendan Gleason is one of irelands finest comedic actors. His Garda, Sergent Gerry Boyle, is a cross between Father Ted and Bad Leutenant, is a very complex character who at times almost disgusts but you never dislike this unorthodox character who does his best, while not always legally, to save the day.

Don Cheadle enters as FBI agent Wendell Everett, on the hunt of international drug dealers about to make an enormous deal landing on Garda Boyles patch. This brings together the buddy cop element of the movie amd the tension result in the reluctant patnershipt between the two leads to comedy gold.
Quality irish character actors such as Liam Cunningham and David Wilmot provide fantastic support aswell as the always reliable Mark Strong turning in a quality performance as the disallusioned drug trafficer who talks philosophy with his fellow traffickers.
The script is frequently hilarious and has a lot of fun with cop movie clichés like police briefing rooms and crime scenes; there are also several very funny running jokes, most notably Boyle's constant digs at American cops and cop shows.

The Gaurd is one of the finest comedies of the year, and in my opinion the best of the year so far, and  cant see any movie being funnier this year.

If you enoy your comedy with a little bit of edge and laugh out loud from start to finish then this is for you!!

9/10