Kutcher delivers action-packed thrills in Guardian

Get ready to delve into a world of fear, strength, courage, and heart stopping suspense when you watch The Guardian, released Friday the 29th. Directed by Andrew Davis (who also directed The Fugitive) and starring Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher, this movie takes you through a brief yet thorough tour of what it is like to be part a United States Coast Guard Rescue Swimmers (CGRS).

In the movie, Ben Randall (Costner), a legendary rescue swimmer, is sent to teach in an elite training school for future rescue swimmers after losing his crew in a devastating explosion. With his unorthodox and grueling techniques he filters the class and is left with a dozen or so students with the qualities that he believes are needed to be a rescue swimmer.

One of these students, Jake Fischer (Kutcher) sets himself apart as the fittest, fastest and slickest. Despite the initial bumpy relationship with his trainer, both he and Randall develop a mentor-mentee relationship after they find out that they are both at the school for the same reasons-lost crew, proving to themselves that they can live up to the memory of their friends and their own expectations.

The movie provides a unique insight to the mind of a rescue swimmer. One has the opportunity to witness the vast amount of physical, mental and emotional strength needed to be part of the CGRS. The film also provides insight on the psyche of a person, for we realize the roots of the motivation to continue with something that is grueling and exhausting and demanding.

The Guardian does a good job of selling the CGRS to the public, but at the same time, it does not let the audience forget the selling point. The film also turns slightly fantastical in the end when the character of Ben Randall is turned into a figure of Christ (savior, rescuer, and fisher) and into an enigma analogous to the yeti or abominable snowman.

The plot also has the necessary love story­-actually it has two of them, with quite different endings, and the movie also laces in a bit of needed comic relief to go with the serious nature of being a member of the CGRS.

The special effects in the film make the Alaskan seas' dangerous conditions clear to the viewer, but they do leave a bit to be desired in replicating a realistic ocean. However, the movie does a good job of balancing character development with an appopriate number of these action scenes.

For anyone interested in a story about honor, courage, fear and determination, this is the movie to watch. Loyalty, commitment and self sacrifice only scratch the surface of themes this movie presents. And for anyone interested in getting a second hand experience of what it takes to be part of a dare devil organization set on saving other peoples' lives regardless of their own-this is definitely the movie to watch.