Sergeant Gerry Boyle (Brendan Gleeson, In Bruges) is a small-town cop with a confrontational personality, a subversive sense of humour, a dying mother, a fondness for prostitutes, and absolutely no interest whatsoever in the international cocaine-smuggling ring that has brought FBI agent Wendell Everett (Don Cheadle, the Ocean's trilogy) to his door. However, when his enthusiastic new partner disappears, his favourite hooker attempts to blackmail him and the drug-traffickers themselves try to buy him off, Sergeant Boyle finally realises that he needs to take matters into his own hands.

The Guard has already won a number of awards, particularly for Brendan Gleeson's performance, and the film itself is proving something of a critical favourite. Kim Newman in Empire said this of the film:

"Among the most purely entertaining films of the year, which cuts its laughter with a dose of Celtic melancholy. It still delivers cop/action requirements - shoot-outs, revenges, daring deeds - and chances are, we'll be quoting lines from this forever."