The Guard offers an offbeat take on a genre without skimping on the violence or gunplay.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Oct 18, 2011

Although The Guard is primarily a language romp, it's also a terrific showcase for veteran pug-faced character actor Brendan Gleeson.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 26, 2011

Brendan Gleeson is a blooming marvel.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 26, 2011

The film is foul-mouthed and not without its flourishes of violence but it's irresistibly likeable (and unpredictable).

| Original Score: 8/10 | Aug 25, 2011

Boyle is probably the first screen hero in a long time whose heroism comes out of boredom and ennui. He gives nihilism a good name.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 25, 2011

Augmenting a smart, witty screenplay is magnificent Scope camerawork by Larry Smith, using beautiful locations around the west coast of Ireland.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 25, 2011

Crisp, acid-tongued and sharply acted, it's the sort of exercise in tangy Celtic cynicism that's become one of the Emerald Isle's most reliable imports.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 19, 2011

There are few things finer in cinema than Brendan Gleeson's fat, happy face.

| Original Score: B | Aug 19, 2011

McDonagh's script is agile, darting between the ridiculous, the sage and the surprisingly sentimental. His love of language and the absurd has hints of the wisecracking Quentin Tarantino. But the story is decidedly more rooted in Ireland's loamy turf.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 19, 2011

Gleeson is triumphant in this portrait of a complex man who is concurrently sensitive, boorish, brilliant, singular, and unforgettable.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 19, 2011

Spiteful, ironic and human in turn, The Guard is an entertainment that makes most of the year's American comedies look impoverished, and in Gleeson it has a palpable star.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 19, 2011

"The Guard" is violent, profane and funny.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 19, 2011

There is something smug and roguish-by-rote about the usual Gleeson performance. Yet who else could play this protagonist?

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 18, 2011

The always-unbeatable Gleeson is on simply outstanding form, conjuring a character both dignified and ridiculous, heroic and hardly bothered.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 18, 2011

"The Guard" is not the most original buddy-cop movie you'll see, but it well may be one of the most entertaining.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Aug 18, 2011

The funniest action comedy for a long time.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 18, 2011

A hugely entertaining but frustratingly disorganised film, packed with priceless moments which never quite coalesce into a rewarding whole.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 17, 2011

Among the most purely entertaining films of the year, which cuts its laughter with a dose of Celtic melancholy.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Aug 15, 2011

"The Guard" himself may be no angel, but his movie is a wee slice of heaven.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 12, 2011

Like an Irish version of "In the Heat of the Night," the profane and frequently hilarious "The Guard" watches the sparks fly as a smart African-American detective teams up with an unapologetically racist County Galway policeman.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 11, 2011