| | | "When Lives Are on the Line, Sacrifice Everything. "
Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher star in The Guardian, the powerful, action-packed drama that takes you inside the never-before-seen world of the elite Coast Guard Rescue Swimmers. Reeling with grief in the wake of a mission gone tragically wrong, legendary Rescue Swimmer Ben Randall (Costner) is given a mission he doesn't want - training raw recruits. Once there, he knocks heads with cocky Jake Fischer (Kutcher), a swimming champ driven by a painful secret, who's more interested in breaking Ben's records than saving lives. But Ben also sees Jake has what it takes to be the best of the best. Filled with spectacular rescues in the lethal waters of the Bering Sea, The Guardian is a riveting and compelling story that dives straight into the heart and soul of real heroes, the unsung guardians of the sea.
"...an action movie displaying brains and heart..." Chris Kaltenbach, Baltimore Sun
"...genuinely well-made...moving." M.E. Russell, Portland Oregonian
"...Kutcher is probably the most appealing he has been in a big-screen role." William Arnold, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Editor's Note
IN THEATERS SEPTEMBER 29, 2006Kevin Costner is Ben Randall, a maverick teacher who trains rescue swimmers for the coast guard. As THE GUARDIAN unravels, Randall shows the talented Jake Fischer (Ashton Kutcher) how to become a member of his team, only for danger to loom large when the men set off on a trip to Alaska.
| Features | Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound | | Interactive Menus | | Scene Selection | | This Is A Blu-Ray DVD Made For Blue-Laser Format Players Which Produce Higher Quality Picture And Sound |
| Entertainment Reviews
 | The Guardian - DVD By: Edward Perkis - Cinema Blend DVD Reviews Published on: 1/23/2007 9:14 PM | | Costner strikes the right note of gruff and compassion in the Coast Guard's "A" school, and Kutcher is better than expected when required to drop the smart-ass act and come out with his own deep driving secret. Their relationship comes off as more natural than some in this type of movie, but it's at the service of a story that can almost be laid out by the viewer five minutes after the DVD is put in the player. ...read the full review |
| The Guardian - Blu-Ray DVD Review By: Matt Paprocki - Blogcritics.org Reviews Published on: 12/4/2008 2:14 PM | | Replace the Coast Guard with basketball, football, or swimming, and you have the basic Disney formula behind The Guardian. This isn’t a revolutionary film, but it’s a story that Hollywood has surprisingly avoided, and the Coast Guard deserves way more credit than they get. Politics aside, there’s an average tale of someone going above and beyond for the sake of others in the face of adversity that’s been done to death, even if it’s done well here....read the full review |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Buena Vista |
| Release Date: 5/30/2008 |
| Running Time: 139 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 2006 | | Catalog ID: 5359003 | | UPC: 00786936725902 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Widescreen 1.85:1 |
| Cast & Crew | Ashton Kutcher | | Kevin Costner | | Melissa Sagemiller | | Sela Ward | | Andrew Davis - Director | | Andrew Max Cahn - Art Director | | Armyan Bernstein - Executive Producer | | Austin Gorg - Art Director | | Dennis Virkler - Editor | | Lowell D. Blank - Producer | | Ron L. Brinkerhoff - Writer | | Stephen St. John - Cinematographer | | Thomas J. Nordberg - Editor | | Trevor Rabin - Original Music By |
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| | Professional Reviews | New York Times
"[A]n action movie, a basic training movie, a swaggering sea adventure, a home front melodrama and an inspiriting tough-love heroic fable." 09/29/2006 p.E6Total Film
3 stars out of 5 -- "[Kutcher] is running at full power throughout....There's real chemistry between Kutcher and Kev..." 11/01/2006 p.46 Sight and Sound
"[Costner] brings a seasoned, low-key authority to the part....Kutcher's performance manages to keep pace with Fischer's growing maturity." 12/01/2006 p.56 Ultimate DVD
4 stars out of 5 -- "[A] very watchable drama....The personal conflicts are complemented by some terrific action sequences..." 07/01/2007 p.18 ReelViews 6 of 10
There's nothing in The Guardian that audiences haven't previously been exposed to ad nauseam. Take a little of An Officer and a Gentleman and a little Top Gun and throw in some waves and underwater sequences, and you have The Guardian - only with less charismatic actors, more tame sex scenes, and a lot less energy. The director is Andrew Davis, who made The Fugitive more than a decade ago. It hardly seems possible that this lazy, sluggish, overlong production could be the work of the same man...There's not much to say about a movie that fails to take the time to develop real characters or provide a few interesting plot points, yet still manages to run for well over two hours. The Guardian expects us to fill in the blanks using our experiences with previous productions of this sort. - James Berardinelli
Variety 7 of 10
Cliches and conventions from several generations of basic-training scenarios are proficiently recycled in "The Guardian," a shrewdly updated version of classic (and not-so-classic) military-themed pics about grizzled, blunt-spoken vets who transform cocksure hotheads into coolly efficient professionals. With Kevin Costner well cast as a demanding mentor haunted by past failures, and Ashton Kutcher surprisingly effective as a brash recruit dealing with his own demons, the overlong but involving drama has obvious cross-generational appeal...Pic clocks in at an indulgent 139 minutes, though it never feels draggy. The training-school story is bracketed with genuinely thrilling rescue sequences convincingly filmed in a 750,000-gallon water tank constructed for the production in Shreveport, La. - Joe Leydon
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