Ben Randall (Kevin Costner) is a veteran Coast Guard rescue swimmer. His wife Helen (Sela Ward) is leaving him. He loses his friend during a deadly accident in a rescue. After injuries and possible PTSD, he is forced to be an instructor at the Coast Guard "A" school. The new recruits include an arrogant champion swimmer Jake Fischer (Ashton Kutcher) who is more interested in the swimming records. He meets Emily Thomas (Melissa Sagemiller) at a wedding. Ben is unconvinced of Jake's commitment and then he uncovers his hidden past.This starts with a couple of thrilling rescues. It puts the movie in a compelling spot. Then it turns into a traditional 'An Officer and A Gentleman'. It's a little too on-the-nose especially with Jake's story. I would have preferred a more interesting Jake performance. It also goes on a little too long. This shouldn't be over two hours long. It needs a bit of tightening including the climax. I may even suggest dropping the love interest but this is still Hollywood. It's a movie that starts strong and stays compelling despite its oddly strict-formulaic story.

So last night I got around to watching guardian. Mixed feelings. For starters it was not necessary to make that movie. There has been at least 20 like it and another 100 or so similar to it. The story itself was played out so many times that it was not interesting to watch at all. So lets start at the beginning. We have Kevin Costner.. OK I can live with that. He passes for a USCG swimmer. Then we have Ashton "Flamboyant" Kutcher in the same movie playing an overachiever. What? I mean seriously what? We can not take him serious, it would be like watching Jim Carey do a Kung Fu movie. You can not put Ashton in shoes of a serious role and expect us to believe and more importantly him to perform. That 70's show pretty much set his career of a goofball. Much like Daniel Radcliffe is forever Harry Potter, he is very much the same a Kelso. So that aside lets have a look at the story. Blah blah some guy having family problems, a sailor, big waves, people drowning, saving, his team dies, he needs time to recover, teaches some greenhorns, one of his students is weak, one is an overachiever, blah blah test of character, both together, one retires, dies and other guy continues then drops everything for "love". Have we not seen it before? Have we not seen it before many many times? Then of course the "green screen"... seriously? Why ohh why do people constantly resort to really cheezy computer animation. Watching this movie was like eating glass while sitting on glass and other people throwing glass at you. Painful to eyes, painful to ears because of dialogue and overall I think this movie deserves no more than a 4/10 even with Costner in it. This movie could have been a 10 or at least a 8 by my book if following criteria was met: Graphics equal to or better than what is shown on Discovery channel Alaska Crab Fishing shows. Actual props were used rather than green screen or at least less green screen. Different story that we have not yet heard. No Ashton. I bet you what really happened was Ashton got all upset about people not taking him seriously so he had a movie made just for him to fulfill his boy fantasy of being a tough guy and since nobody else wanted to be in the movie with him he had to beg fading movie stars to at least give his movie some credibility. Good thing that its only a rental and is on its way back to Netflix.

This is not a bad movie but nearly every military movie has a scene in which the "hero" bets his buddies that he can pick-up a woman in the bar that they happen to be in. Our hero, of course to the surprise of his buddies is successful and wins the bet. This same plot device is used in "Top Gun", "G.I. Blues", "annapolis" and who knows how many other military movies and "The Guardian" also uses this. Come on movie makers, drop this tired old cliché' and come up with something new! Oh boy, here we go again with this ridiculous requirement that my review must have ten lines! I've already said what is necessary, I don't need ten lines to present this view. Why is this ten line rule required? It simply makes reviews much wordier than they need to be!

Having heard lots of good about this movie, I was kinda excited about it. It was awesome. A truly inspiring movie. I'm actually very surprised to see such a low rating here. The rating and the movie does not match at all. It's definitely underrated. The main reason probably is cause some people were left disappointed by the end. The story moved at a slow pace but ending was very fast-paced. Well, it didn't matter to me. It was still very emotional.Kevin Costner is an old fox. He just knows how to play someone who is good at what he does but not that good at personal life. Ashton Kutcher is great. He shows that he can be not just funny guy but a serious drama actor too.Swimming is a great activity. This movie here likes to anybody who fancies swimming. Guaranteed or money back. If you need a good amount of inspiration, this is your film.