> The Guard
4 stars (out of 5)
Directed by: John Michael McDonagh
Starring: Brendan Gleeson, Don Cheadle and Mark Strong.
Rating: (R13)
It is difficult to avoid comparisons between The Guard and Irish stablemate In Bruges.
The Guard writer-director John Michael McDonagh is the younger brother of Martin McDonagh, who wrote the 2008 hit about Irish hitmen in Belgium.
And this dead funny rollercoaster ride runs along similarly dark and twisted tracks.
The film takes the shillelagh to subjects like racism, hypocrisy, homosexuality and infidelity.
Sergeant Gerry Boyle (Brendan Gleeson) is a member of Garda Sdochana, the Irish national police, and comfortably derelict in his duty in picturesque western Ireland.
Boyle's idea of police work revolves around Guinness, sampling confiscated drugs and happy times with hookers.
So, he is less than pleased when his reverie is interrupted by the crash-bang antics of super-serious and super-slick FBI agent Wendell Everett (Don Cheadle) on the trail of an international cocaine syndicate.
And, when one of the main drug players turns up dead, he is near apoplectic.
The caustic, rural Irishman and the privileged American Yale graduate and Rhodes scholar begin an uneasy alliance, which challenges both men.
"I thought only black lads were drugs dealers," Boyle airily informs the black FBI man.
"But I'm Irish; racism is part of my culture."
The funny thing about The Guard isn't the good cop, bad cop storyline, which contains few surprises, but the delightful characterisations by the protagonists.
Even the bad guys are priceless, arguing the merits of their favourite philosophers and quoting Nietzsche on their way to a contract killing.
There is also intrigue, as the goodies and the baddies get down and dirty and it seems there is not so much difference between the two sides.
And, like all good cop movies, it finishes with a bang.
Quite a few of them, actually.
Best thing: Stunning Ireland scenery.
Worst thing: Some telegraphed lines.
See it with: The politically incorrect.
