The Bodyguard (1992)

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Frank Farmer	Kevin Costner	½
Rachel Marron	Whitney Houston
Sy Spector	Gary Kemp
Bill Devaney	Bill Cobbs	½
Herb Farmer	Ralph Waite	½
Nicki Marron	Michele Lamar Richards
Tony Scipelli	Mike Starr	½
Fletcher Marron	DeVaughn Nixon	-

Review

This blockbuster capitalized on the peak of Whitney Houston's career as a pop phenomenon and Kevin Costner's sudden rise to box-office number one in the wake of Dances With Wolves. The film was a huge success back in 1992, but hasn't stood the test of time well. It's intended to be a romantic thriller of sorts, but all the thriller elements are oversimplified, most of the characters are one-dimensional, and the so-called romance is out of the blue and not accounted for, making it feel uneasy at best and outright cringeworthy at worst. There's no indication as to why these two people would fall for each other, other than the fact that they have the likenesses of Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner, who were seen as good-looking by contemporary audiences. It's a remarkably lazy directing job by Mick Jackson from one of a series of poor Lawrence Kasdan scripts of the 1990s – marking Kasdan's steep decline from his streak of brilliant films in the preceding decade. That is Gary Kemp of New Romantic pop sensation Spandau Ballet playing Houston's manager – a performance which could have been interesting with a more refined script. Costner's character, on the other hand, has got no distinguishing characteristics whatsoever.