Ashton Kutcher and Kevin Costner in "The Guardian"
courtesy of Disney Home Entertainment
"Kevin Is On Guard"

Kevin Costner has a new movie out on DVD titled "The Guardian." It seems he has his worst luck in movies about water ("Waterworld"). They are either too long or too predictable. Although he teams up in "The Guardian" with hunk of the month Ashton Kutcher, this movie about Coast Guard rescuers sinks!

Costner plays Ben Randall, one of the best of the elite Coast Guard Rescue Swimmers. On one fateful night in Alaska he loses his partner and most of his crew. While he recovers from this event, his Commander (Clancy Brown) sends him to Louisiana to instruct a new group of Swimmer recruits. His wife Helen (Sela Ward) does not make the trip with him.

The cockiest of the new group is a hotshot named Jake Fischer (Kutcher). He is determined to break every record Ben set. In retaliation Ben throws every obstacle he can find his way. The two men snarl and fight but eventually become best friends. Are you surprised?

You can actually predict the ending from the first few scenes. You also can learn how to be a Coast Guard Rescue Swimmer in detail - too much detail. It all drags and the action sequences are too few and too far apart. Costner and Kutcher are okay in their roles but they can't make this movie stay afloat and in the end it stinks - I mean sinks.

Another new movie on DVD is "Catch A Fire," a film based on a true story of Apartheid in South Africa, and the struggle to liberate the blacks who live there. It is a heroic story that shows the evolution of one man from being apolitical to being a revolutionary. Still the way the story is told there is no dramatic tension and the story simply never catches fire.

Patrick Chamusso (Derek Luke) live in South Africa with his wife Precious (Bonnie Henna) and their two daughters. He is not a wealthy man but by South African standards he is middle class. He works at the local factory and spends his free time coaching soccer.

It is a dangerous time in the history of South Africa as there are rebels who are trying to throw off the yoke of the current government. The police call these people terrorists and are subject to arresting people on the smallest suspicion they are somehow involved with the rebels.

Eventually Chamusso gets swept up by the police and this experience changes his life. He becomes the type of person the police fear, and his goals become the same as those of the rebels. All of this should make for fascinating moviemaking - but it doesn't. The movie just never does seem to "catch fire."

When a Chinese/American father of three women suddenly disappears, the impact on each of these women is amazing. As they search for their father and try to live their lives without him, changes occur that are both realistic and comedic.

This is a look at modern day women and the way their lives are formed. It is appealing, interesting and totally enchanting.

Finally for something completely different watch "The Rise and Fall of a Bar Mitzvah Emcee." This movie is exactly what the title says it is. Taylor James (Tim Peper) is a rising star on the Bar Mitzvah emcee circuit. He catches the eye of Vanessa Dupree (Judy Reyes of "Scrubs" fame) and gets raised to the elite level. The man becomes THE Bar Mitzvah emcee and is in demand. But just as quickly as he has risen he soon begins to fall, thanks to the glittery world he has entered.

It is all told in a documentary type style and plays out just as real life would. Just remember this is a movie unlike anything you have ever seen. It is a totally unique look at a way of life most of us didn't even know existed.
 

 

 

 

 

©2007 Jackie K. Cooper

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