Guardian, The

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Summary

A decent enough low key action drama that comes a little unwound at the end. Nothing special and well enough done for the most part, though I have to say that the casting of Ashton Kutcher as the troubled, uber-talented young upstart and co-star wasn't the best choice. He's not that bad, he just doesn't add anything to the film--and I like Kutcher.

Details and Notes

Spoiler.

The only thing that's worth talking about is the ending. It was about as contrived as it gets.

Kutcher and the Senior Chief are hanging onto a fraying rope outside the copper. It breaks, Senior Chief dies.

First off, I have 100% confidence that the Coast Guard is super anal about checking and maintaining equipment. Something as simple as a frayed rope is not something likely to sneak past them.

Second, there's no reason I saw that the chopper couldn't have just lowered it's altitude a bit so he could drop in the water like they do all the time. We know from earlier in the film that the chopper's have inflatable boats. All they had to do was drop down enough to let the guy drop in the water without killing himself and shove the boat out. He wouldn't even have to be in the water. It was a perfectly controllable situation that they all knew how to control. It was just more dramatic for him to die, but the death was not supportable at all.