Wonderful character development!

Thanks for the memories!

Best movie of this year hands down!

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

I must recognize that the photography, the camera work and the music is nice, but I found the story very disappointing. I find the film full of unnecessary violence, like if if the bullets where the message and not just a tool in the story. The actions scenes are just too long, but they don t get to be shocking, nor caricatures. The plot, supposedly happening in Germany, lacks credibility. The story follows the same universal patterns from any action history (villains, corrupt official, reluctant heroes), but it really insist on jumping into the German over and over again, so in that sense it should be a story more coherent with how life, crime, violence and military life is in that country. The characters, the dialogs and the action scenes really show like they tried just too hard to look like an American movie. There is also not a true conflict and the villains lack of good acting or deep personalities. Dialogues are predictable, as the characters dilemmas. I was expecting an stronger antagonist, but instead of that , the screenwriter opted for giving more space to secondary characters. Despite that, I must also recognize that Til Schweiger acting is good and Moritz Bleibtreu is an excellent actor and his character really good. At the end, is not gonna compete against the great drama-action movies, but is a good movie to have some fun and practice German.

Chuck Norris is an inferior rip-off of Til Schweiger. Although Chuck Norris started his career before Til Schweiger. But then Til Schweiger decided to change the course of time itself. So there.What Til and Chuck do have in common, though, is that they both can be entertaining actors, for those good, old kick-back-with-a-beer movies that you shouldn't mention when you're trying to impress a classy chick. They serve, they entertain, they kick ass. However, they don't possess the powers of irony. If you let them produce, write, direct, act and cast their own daughter, then you're in for a long, dark ride. While he was at it, Til Schweiger might as well have called this movie "Til Schweiger Saves The World And All Chicks Want Him". As it was, he strangely limited himself to "Guardian Angel". But the action scenes are a lot of fun. Five mercenaries with automatic rifles blaze into a room with Til Schweiger in it. An unequal fight ensues, and a bad day for the mercenaries begins. Til tilts his gat gangsta style and wastes them all while bullets, plaster and human debris swirl through the air in slo-motion like birds through the rain-forest in Powanisqatsi. Beautiful to watch. My advice would be to simply fast forward to the next, beautifully photographed action scene. Because when the last bad guy has been wasted, Til Schweiger begins to talk, and that means serving up platitudes with a tightened jawbone. If you save another soldier's life, you see, you get a friendship bracelet. And Til could wear a different friendship bracelet "every day of the week". That made me worry about the Bundeswehr.With a more ironic script, this movie would have been enjoyable in a dumb way. As it is, it's a potpourri of Hollywood action movies from the last 30 years.

Another reviewer wrote that Til S. knows what he's doing. And I'm pretty sure he wasn't talking about the fact, that he's casting his daughter in every movie he's in (German movie that is), the last couple of years. Will Smith seems to be doing the same thing in America, so you can't blame him for that. You also should consider the sound effects and the way the action scenes are shot. He knows how to copy Hollywood and make it believable in a German setting (movie wise that is, not that this is close to any reality in Germany).But when it comes to story and character, this is as weak as they come. Casting Moritz Bleibtreu in this seems almost unnecessary. Not casting actual action performers from Germany is a real omission (Mathis Landwehr to name one!)! Acting also doesn't help, especially Schweigers daughter is off (but if you've seen the other movies you knew that). That won't change the fact, that anything Schweiger touches turns into gold (or at least German box office gold)

As an American, I went into this not knowing what to expect. I wasn't disappointed. I'm not thrilled, but not disappointed. Maybe I just don't understand European movie sensibilities (I recently saw Rust and Bone and thought there were pacing and story issues with that).I think Til Schweiger is an engaging actor (he reminds me of Guy Peace) and Karoline Suchuch is beautiful. The film was beautifully shot, it looked great. The plot - policeman protects girl from bad guys - is a staple of the genre and Schutzengel, as another entry in the canon doesn't add much that's new or prevent the next one. It has it's share of clichés: the hero is emotionally withdrawn and former military, the young cop who finds out his wife is pregnant gets killed (immediately), the 'crazy' best friend and the faceless, nameless henchmen who end up as cannon fodder.There are problems. The first being the reason the girl needs protection. She witnesses the killing of a boy by 'the villain' in what I would describe as a tragic accident. The boy sneaks the girl into the Presidential suite of the hotel where he works, she takes a laptop, 'the villain' comes back to the room, the boy and girl hide, 'the villain' notices the laptop missing, his security man comes to investigate and when the boy tries to put the laptop back 'the villain' panics and shoots and kills him. He actually seems quite remorseful when he realizes he's killed the boy. As far as I could tell 'the villain' is the villain because he may have laundered some money and is a arms dealer. A lot is made of the fact this man can own and carry a loaded gun. I guess they really hate guns in Germany though they must love them in movies as there is no actual fighting, all action is done with various handguns, shotguns and machine guns. Another problem is that it's too long at 130 minutes. It could have been cut to @ 90 by removing a sequence in a diner and a stop by the police that really adds nothing to the story.The relationship between the girl and her protector has some moments, but doesn't really build what I consider a substantial bond and I guess there has to be a 'love' relation in the form of the DA trying to prosecute 'the villain' and give us an upbeat ending.One thing that I was surprised to see, that separates this from all other action movies is the hero washing and crying over his best friend who was shot to death.This is not an excellent film but it did give me an interest in seeing what else Til Schweiger has done.