The Guardian

A legendary Coast Guard rescue swimmer is sent to the training school instead of back into the field after an accident. Waiting for him is an arrogant recruit determined to break every record on the board. The best thing about the film is not its plot but its source. The Coast Guard cooperated directly, and many of the instructors, helicopter pilots and ground personnel on screen are actual Coast Guard staff. The training sequences were shot in a wave pool built for the production, and the conditions it produced give the film its most convincing stretches. Kevin Costner plays the veteran and Ashton Kutcher the recruit. It opened with 18 million dollars and grossed around 95 million worldwide against a 70 million budget. Critics were unimpressed. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 37 percent, with the repeated line being that it borrows cliché after cliché from other and better military branch films. Who it is for: viewers who like rescue operations and the mentor and pupil formula. Who it is not for: anyone wanting a script. The story is predictable and the ending takes an easy route to its emotion.