The Old Guard (2020)
What’s old is new again
also…
“I’m tired of this $#!+ !!!”
While theaters remain closed in much of the country, a healthy supply of direct to streaming products are keeping the Now Playing queue full. The latest big movie to hit our little screen is The Old Guard.
Based on the graphic novel by Greg Rucka, TOG is the story of four immortal warriors doing good deeds around the edges of human history. They have been at it for a looong time - in the case of their leader, Andy (Charlize Theron), a little over 6,000 years.
The team, which includes a pair of Crusades-era lovers (Joe, played by Marwan Kenzari, and Nicky - Luca Marinelli) and the baby, Booker (Matthias Schoenaerts), a Napoleonic age soldier, know their business, from fighting to languages to food.
You get the impression that these guys did not spend eternity sitting on the couch eating potato chips: they are uber competent is everything they do and even when having the obligatory “Oh woe is me, I’m so tired of living forever” moment, you can tell that they have been having a blast for the last few millennia.
So all’s well for the Forever Four until two things happen to disrupt the status quo (don’t worry - we’ll go light on Spoilers).
First, they discover that it is hard to keep a secret identity in a world of facial recognition, big data, and social media. Someone finds out who and what they are and much of the movie is a running gun (and knife…and axe…fight) with the bad guys.
The second is that they discover a new immortal - the first in two centuries - a young U.S. Marine, played by KiKi Layne (Native Son).
A lot of people like this flick and, as of this writing, it is the #1 film on NETFLIX.
But is it any good?
We’ll get the not great out of the way first.
Pretty much everything about TOG is…well…old. If you’ve watched Highlander, read the old Eternal Warrior comic or the Casca series, or tune into one out of four random programs on the SyFy channel, you have seen all this before. You also get the definite feeling that this was never intended to be a one-and-done story. The structure of the movie is a near complete lift from the Marvel Cinematic Universe model, right down the the credit teasers.
But…if you are into any of those things (and we are)…all of that is a selling point.
And it is an easy sell with the super talent they have collected. The good guys are great, particularly KiKi Layne, the bad guys are appropriately annoying, the dialogue is solid (especially between Joe and Nicky), and the fight sequences are superb.
Is it original? Nah. But it is good and worth a watch.
You can catch The Old Guard HERE on NETFLIX.
Three out of Five Scythian Axes.
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What’s your favorite “eternal warrior” story (book or movie)? Let us know and we’ll give it a review!
