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Reviews provided by RottenTomatoes
Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Running on for a butt-numbing two-and-a-half hours, The Guardian overstays whatever forgiving nature one is willing to extend. Read more
Jessica Reaves, Chicago Tribune: In between the maudlin moments, [director] Davis et al. deliver a sturdy popcorn movie and a few genuine thrills. Not bad for a day on the high seas. Read more
David Germain, Associated Press: Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher's The Guardian drags on like a slow boat ride to Anchorage, its standard-issue heroics and flavorless dialogue gone stale long before the movie arrives at the big, valorous finish. Read more
Rex Reed, New York Observer: Formulaic but so well-made that you choke on the thrills in spite of yourself. Read more
J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Impossible tests of endurance: check. Grinding down of cadet's arrogance: check. Phony romance between cadet and sassy babe: check. Fatherly benediction, the newly minted hero bursting with pride: check. Boo-rah! Read more
Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: The Guardian is the kind of inspirational movie that Hollywood made about the Army, Navy and Marines during World War II. Now, with inspiration in short supply, it's the Coast Guard's turn. Read more
Tom Keogh, Seattle Times: Little about The Guardian will surprise anyone from one scene to the next, though the ride is hardly unpleasant and the story is generous in scope. Read more
Bob Longino, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: This is a silly movie made of taped-together Hollywood hokum, the kind where you just know the pitch was something like, 'It's Top Gun meets An Officer and a Gentleman in The Perfect Storm.' Read more
Amelie Gillette, AV Club: The Guardian tries tremendously hard to win audiences over with manly derring-do, exciting action, and impossible-obstacles-overcome uplift. Read more
Bill Muller, Arizona Republic: Like a light out on the ocean, you can see everything coming for miles in The Guardian. Read more
Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: The Guardian is bookended by two technically complex rescue sequences, but the movie sorely lacks momentum. So it's up to the cast to transport us, and that doesn't happen either. Read more
Kevin Crust, Los Angeles Times: Entertaining enough but strictly in a wait-for-cable way. Read more
Bruce Westbrook, Houston Chronicle: Valor does emerge in The Guardian, but often is eclipsed by an effects-driven star vehicle. Read more
Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: When the climax finally comes, it turns out there are at least four of them. This is the kind of movie that seems to end over and over again. Just as you're rising in your seat to leave, another coda is tacked on. Read more
Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: It's a pleasure to watch Costner. He continues to operate in a comfort zone where aging and foxiness co-exist. (Harrison Ford, take note.) Read more
Tom Long, Detroit News: While it's not completely waterlogged, The Guardian is more than a bit soggy. It begins efficiently familiar and ends with a series of splashes that seem like desperate dogpaddling. Read more
Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: The brave women and men who serve as United States Coast Guard Rescue Swimmers perform courageous, lifesaving feats every day. Clocking in at a Waterworldly 139 minutes, The Guardian catalogs every one of them. Read more
Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: Costner and Kutcher spark some real chemistry in their scenes together, but The Guardian takes a weird and unwelcome turn in its final 45 minutes and goes off the deep end. Read more
Scott Foundas, L.A. Weekly: I doubt that even these knights in neoprene armor could rescue an audience from The Guardian's torrent of watery cliches. Read more
Jan Stuart, Newsday: Eleven-year-old males who check the mirror daily for signs of facial hair may give it a 'hoo-ra'. For their balding elders, 'hoo-boy' might say it best. Read more
Lisa Rose, Newark Star-Ledger: Surrounding the flashy heroics, however, is a lot of stilted drama. Unresolved subplots make the movie longer than it needs to be. Read more
Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: A popcorn flick like this does best when it sticks to shallow waters. Read more
Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: A workmanlike story, an unusual setting, a game cast and a righteous message kind of get lost in the film's excesses. And an imbalance in the leads hampers this by-the-book service-academy drama. Read more
James Berardinelli, ReelViews: 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. Read more
Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: Kutcher and Costner have a kind of visual chemistry that's just as elusive as the other kind. And the connection and contrast between them remind us that Hollywood isn't as forgiving of older male actors as we like to think. Read more
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: The Guardian has the feel of a Sunday feature in a newspaper more than a drama. Read more
Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: A decade after the commercial and critical flop of Waterworld nearly drowned his career, Kevin Costner is back to sea in The Guardian, and this time his dignity remains afloat. Read more
Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times: The Guardian isn't the worst aqua-themed movie of Kevin Costner's career. Not with Waterworld in his rearview mirror. Read more
Kate Taylor, Globe and Mail: Both veteran director Andrew Davis and writer Ron L. Brinkerhoff know a cliche when they see one... so they dutifully point them out to us in this predictable tale of a much-decorated rescue swimmer passing the torch to a promising new recruit. Read more
Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star: The Guardian does the job required: nothing more, nothing less, and nothing fancy. Read more
Scott Bowles, USA Today: Kutcher may soon be ready to anchor a Hollywood sea voyage. But for now, he's still a touch out of his depth. Read more
Joe Leydon, Variety: 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. Read more
Stephen Hunter, Washington Post: The movie begins to overload its frail reed of a structure with giant sloppages of cliches from other movies, some so bad it's almost comical. Read more