The Guard is one of those movies that, if a major studio had made it, I'm not so sure that the review would have been so glowing. Whereas indie films get to be "understated", studio films are just not that funny. This film treads in the same beaten path as Hot Fuzz but it's plays it straight rather than as a spoof and it doesn't really add much to the proceedings to stand out. Also, the fish out of water element with Don Cheadle seems wasted. That character is basically just there so that Brendan Gleeson's character has someone to talk to and to whom he can occassionally throw a racist joke. There's a b-story with Gleeson's characters mom that would be emotional if it didn't all seem so convenient for the story. In the end, there's just not enough here to really make the film worth a trip to the theater. It's a decent enough movie but it doesn't have anything to elevate itself out of the ol' "Wait to DVD/HBO" crowd.