Really Surprised!

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

I am extremely impressed with this movie, and I feel like it is under-appreciated. This movie is not the fast-paced action movie that we are used to with military films. Instead, this is an inspirational story about overcoming the challenges in one's life. The movie follows the character development of Jake Fischer (Ashton Kutcher) and Ben Randall (Kevin Costner). In the movie, both characters are facing similar struggles, and when they first meet, they are dealing with they're ghosts in different ways. But, together they overcome them and become the heroes that they need to be. I love this movie because it helps to inspire people to become better. These characters are rescue swimmers or training to become rescue swimmers, and they must overcome their own personal struggles to be able to help save others. You gain a deeper appreciation for real life coast guard swimmers. You also feel as if you yourself are able to make a difference in the lives of other people. This movie is a great representation of overcoming one's self to become a person that will make a difference in the lives of others.

As you watch, please remember "The Guardian" is a motion picture – a lot of the scenes are played in a way that will elicit certain emotions. Some of the scenes are just plain fantasy. However, that being said, please also remember that there are thousands of individuals who serve their country daily in the U. S. Coast Guard, a military service now under the Department of Homeland Security, but previously directed by the Department of Transportation. They serve at sea, on land and in the air. Much of the drama and danger depicted in the film is more than real. These situations happen far more often than you would imagine. How do I know? I served in the USCG from 1976 to 1984 several decades prior to the approximate time of the motion picture. The video training footage is real. And, it's simply amazing that many people are actually saved from some of those hopeless situations.I almost lost my life on several occasions while tending to routine duty. Had it not been for our CG training and attention to detail, both before and during our missions, I would not be writing this review today. I served in every location depicted in the film, including Alaska, which can indeed be a brutal environment. The major portion of my small boat duty happened in the Gulf of Mexico. As we used to say while on small boat duty, "we are required to go out to sea, but we are not required to return." On the other hand, none of us was given permission by our commanding officer or chief to get hurt of killed.I used to get somewhat miffed at the amount of publicity and attention that those in the aviation branches get over the much larger force of seagoing officers and enlisted sailors who take care of the daily drudgery and human drama that happens far too often while people are attempting to earn their living from the ever changing and unforgiving environment of the sea. But, the media likes that kind of high visual drama. The Officer of the Day won't spend a dime of the money it takes to fire up a sophisticated, multi-million dollar aircraft and risk a group of highly trained aviation personnel without some definite attainable mission. When things go wrong out there in the middle of nowhere, they can go wrong very fast. Many times a radio call to the USCG is all that stands between Davy Jones' locker and some more time spent on this earth with your family and friends. How much is it worth? Just ask any victim of circumstance who has spotted the red, white and blue stripes of a Coast Guard rescue. There are no words to describe it when a set of strong hands reaches for you and you hear those welcome words, "I'm with the U. S. Coast Guard. I'm here to help you." The relief is overwhelming.When USCG pilots and enlisted swimmers go to sea, they have only a very limited time to affect a rescue, usually governed by fuel, load, weather, and yes, sometimes even luck. The job they do out there is supposed to be mostly routine. But, when the pilot announces it's time to leave the scene, you leave the scene. There is no question. It's either that or the people in the aircraft face a high risk of death. Every move the crew makes is full of life and death decisions that will determine the fate of not only those they are rescuing, but the personnel on the aircraft as well. Just one small error is all it takes for everyone in an operation to have a very bad day. So, all Coast Guard training is intentionally difficult to account for those variables.This motion picture, "The Defection of Simas Kudirka (1978)" and a hand full of other films are a testament to the training, dedication to duty and the constant attention and work by the maintenance personnel that keep the helicopters, airplanes, small boats and cutters operating smoothly and safely to accomplish the over 200 mandated missions of the U. S. Coast Guard every hour of every day.

This was a terrific movie and one of my favorite Kevin Costner movies. In a nutshell, it is about training for life in the U.S. Coast Guard. Costner plays a Coast Guard legend, who, after a tragic and traumatic accident at sea, gets assigned to teaching and takes hotshot recruit Ashton Kutcher, who had been a swim champion (and who has a similar incident in his past) under his wing as his protégée. The bulk of the movie deals with the classes, swimming, rescue scenes, and the recruits' going out at night. I thought those scenes were hilarious, especially when Kutcher tries to pick up chicks.I think the best parts of this well-done film were the rescue scenes (which were brilliantly filmed), the character development, the classroom scenes in the pool, and the interactions with Costner and Kutcher. I also loved the legend of "The Guardian. Anyone who loves the stars will love this movie.*** out of ****

It was around 2005 onwards that films started to decline overall. We saw a great reduction in daring, but novel plots and Hollywood started churning out films with reused plots, predictable endings, moderate acting and "crosses the Ts" style of film making, producing an ultimately forgettable product. This spanned across action, comedy and drama films and since then, we're seldom treated to an interesting movie.The guardian is not an interesting movie. Amazingly, the film had a large budget though it was difficult to work out how this was consumed, given most of the film was shot in and around an indoor pool.The teacher is brilliant with a distinguished career, but battling his demons arising out of a tragic event (yawn) and a cocky new recruit with bad attitude and loads of talent (yawn) who ends of walking the straight and narrow to become a true hero everyone knows that he is (yawn).Costner and Kutcher were fairly well matched and acting was reasonable given the material, but the cardboard cutout nature of the plot was just such as a disappointment that it overshadowed any positives.Even if you saw it at the time it came out, I bet you couldn't remember what it was about these days.