1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
"The Bodyguard"...Cynthia Rothrock Style, June 18, 2010
This review is from: Guardian Angel (DVD)
"Guardian Angel" is such a thoroughly average film for the later career of Cynthia Rothrock that it's difficult to decide whether to praise it for its competence or criticize it for being such a cloyingly run-of-the-mill outing for the woman whose adventures once made our jaws drop in awe. Eventually, the fact that it does nothing different from the thirty or so other Rothrock-starring flicks counts against it, but rest assured, she's done a lot worse. It's simultaneously easy to endure and easy to forget, and shouldn't interest you unless you're an older fan looking to complete your collection.
The story: Chris McKay (Rothrock,
Above the Law) was a happily-engaged policewoman until her fiancée (Marshall Teague,
Road House) is killed during an arrest gone wrong. Six months and a resignation later, McKay becomes a bodyguard to a wealthy playboy (Daniel McVicar, "The Bold and the Beautiful") being stalked by his murderous ex-wife - the same woman who killed McKay's partner (Lydie Denier,
Acapulco H.E.A.T. - The Complete Series).
The movie has some serious pacing issues. The whole backstory leading to Cynthia's character becoming a bitter recluse before taking the bodyguard job is stretched throughout the first third of the film, and during this time, McKay has absolutely no personality, since the movie merely rotates from fight scene to investigation scene with next to no opportunity for character elaboration. I know I shouldn't expect much from a DTV action movie, but come on: McKay even treats her fiancée's death like a minor inconvenience when it happens - not necessarily because Cynthia's a bad actress, but because she has no time to demonstrate how McKay feels about her loss. The movie doesn't really start until an hour in, at which point it must further rush explaining why Lydie Denier's character is a psychopath and how McKay can fall so quickly for the immature rich boy.
At least Daniel McVicar is good at doing the playboy; his amusing performance makes him one of the few halfway-entertaining characters in the film, which is otherwise populated by faceless Cynthia and Miss Denier, who seems to be taking a shot at the 'queen of overacting' title. The fight scenes help cover this, but not very well: five brawls choreographed by Rothrock's longtime friend and fellow action star Richard Norton (good) and the resident leach of the action genre Art Camacho (not good) don't rise above so-so quality, with Cyn once again delivering nice kicks but having any potential coolness hampered by unnecessary editing. The finale between her and perpetually-underrated supporting martial artist Ken McCleod (
Showdown) is at least more fun to watch than the gang fight involving Dale Jacoby (
No Retreat, No Surrender).
It's a bit annoying how many of the sets in the first half-hour of the film are consistently dark, but overall, the production quality is good. Less strong is the movie's writing, which negates to explain why Lydie Denier and her henchmen can simply waltz onto McVicar's property without a care at times but need to swoop in via helicopter later. Still, we get such gem scenes as Cynthia arguing at length with her wiener pup, being mistaken for a plumber at a party, knocking a maid off of a balcony to her death, and Miss Denier setting a man's groin on fire, so it's not all bad. There's still not enough fun stuff to make it all good, I'm afraid, so really just leave this one until you run out of other things to buy.
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1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
action and story, August 24, 2011
This review is from: Guardian Angel (DVD)
A good movie with action, plot, character and many more verbs that describe the movie. A good action flick and thank you.
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