The Guardian (DVD-Video + Blu-ray)
Picture:
C+/B Sound: B-/B Extras: C- Film: D
Despite
making the occasionally good film that gets overlooked like Open Range, Kevin Costner cannot get a
break. After watching something as bad
as The Guardian (2006), I figured
out his biggest problem. It is not that
he is dumb (he has had too many hits and been too sincere in his efforts) or
unhip, but that he is a traditional modernist in a post-modern cinema. This means he keeps trying to do something
with a very traditional narrative to a fault and the point of ruining most of
his films instead of coming up with more hits.
This does
not mean he needs to lower himself to doing MTV movies or slasher films, but he
has lost his way and if he could adapt his ideas and standards to more
challenging narratives that still retained coherency of some sorts, he would be
on top again. Here he is in a drama with
Ashton Kutcher, who hardly has any hit films because he is too busy with TV and
signs for anything, directed by Andrew Davis.
Davis helmed the feature version of The
Fugitive, but has also been undermined by the trappings of old narrative
structures. Here, all take a bath in a
very badly formulaic film.
Costner
is Kutcher’s elder in an elite team of Coast Guard Rescue Swimmers. Only Navy SEALs seem to be as intense in the
water. Like too many films that want to
be Top Gun, Kutcher is
wet-behind-the-ears (even before he gets in the water) and can’t cut it, so
only Costner can teach him to straighten out.
Unfortunately for the viewer, the very long 139 minutes is that
predictable, tired and made worse by bad digital water effects that seem like The Perfect Storm on steroids in the
worst way.
Nothing
here is ever believable, the film runs on and on, the performances are
cardboard beyond belief and we never really learn anything about The Coast
Guard except what we already knew going in: they risk their lives in one of the
toughest jobs around. A documentary
would have been more interesting than this.
The anamorphically
enhanced 1.85 X 1 image on the DVD is surprisingly poor with shots that are too
dark, lack definition and are never consistent, while the 1080p digital High
Definition version on the Blu-ray is more like it. It may not help the digital look better, but
color is more consistent, definition and depth are improved and it is not a
distracting presentation. Both have
adequate Dolby Digital 5.1 mixes, but they are subpar, especially as compared
to the PCM 48kHz/24-bit 5.1 mix, which has some really good dynamic sound. This will not help the lack of character of
the mix or yet another one of Trevor Rabin’s disappointing tick-a-tick-a-tick
scores out, but it does make watching the disc more interesting than the
standard DVD.
Extras on
both editions include audio commentary by director Andrew Davis and writer Ron L.
Brinkerhoff, deleted scenes, alternate ending, a making of featurette and the
one piece really worth your time: "Unsung Heroes" – a tribute to the real-life
Coast Guard rescuers this film ultimately tries to honor, but never works.
- Nicholas Sheffo
