The Guardian

Kevin Costner as the charismatic mentor sufficiently surpassing the newbie Ashton Kutcher. Eighty percent of the running time takes place in a training camp and serves up only routine scenes depicting the mentor getting closer to his pupil, the pupil with a chick and some friendly backslapping. When the heroes finally get outside, there comes a forced ending that seeks to give depth and meaning to the whole thing. That is a pity. Even so, thanks to the lead acting duo, The Guardian remains a nice leisure-time movie and a much less of a screw-up than Men of Honor. (10/31/2008)

Not great. A story that's been told hundreds of times in an unremarkable setting. Ashton Kutcher is wooden, Kevin Costner somehow manages, and Andrew Davis is good, but there's simply nothing to surprise and the running time could have been shortened a bit. (12/31/2006)

For two hours, I waited for a ballbusting scene that would give this slow-flowing, two-dimensional mess from the life of the undaunted Guardians some nails, a crown, or perhaps just a hint of shine. Unfortunately, what we see in the end hardly competes with a reality show on the Discovery Channel, and the actual point of the story then playfully fits back into the average Hollywood gimmick. Watching the story of two very schematic heroic types is bearable, but not exciting. But at least Costner found a certain personal charm. Between ** and ***. I don't which one I’m closer to. (12/29/2007)

Full of clichés, predictable scenes, and all the possible shortcomings of the current middle wave of mainstream Hollywood. For Andrew Davis, however, it is a fairly solid and watchable flick that critics and audiences won't tear down like they did with Collateral Damage a few years back. You won't exactly swoon over Ashton Kutcher, but he surprisingly fits well in a tougher role. Kevin Costner handles it without any problems, and all the key positions in the training base are filled by the kind of tough guys who are usually cast in these types of roles. The action scenes are sufficiently action-packed, and the training scenes are interesting and suspenseful enough to keep the audience's attention. The ending is slightly contrived, but that was to be expected. (08/12/2007)

A pleasant old-school movie about a teacher and a pupil which pulls Kevin Costner out of the waters of gray mediocrity. There’s not much I can say about the predictable story, but every so often you need to lie back and relax in front of a movie and let yourself be taken off down a familiar road. Ashton Kutcher also acts quite well and the action scenes on the sea have something a special oomph. It passed by nicely. P.S.: The ending was a tearjerker. ;-) (10/05/2007)