The Sentinel
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DVD Cover Information
Format: NTSCAudience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Movie Reviews of The Sentinel
Movie Review: Nothing New
Summary: 2 Stars
If you took every spy/political thriller/action movie plot device and shook them up in a big hat and then made a movie out of the first 3 things you picked at random, you would get a movie like the Sentinel. It just feels like a movie you've seen before, and that's because you likely have: In the Line of Fire, 24, The Jackal, etc., each of which is more memorable than this amalgamation.
Michael Douglas is back, having yet another affair (has he become a method actor for the adulterous husband?) this time around with the President's wife, which is some grade-A lunacy since he is employed by the Secret Service. Kiefer Sutherland plays the antagonist, sure that Douglas' character is guilty of more than 'sexual relations with that woman." That he actually is a mole trying to kill the President.
This is a movie you will lose any memory of one you've shelved it in your DVD library. There is nothing at all compelling about the film, and nothing that will draw you back to it later, with the possible exception of Eva Longoria, who allegedly scored better than 90% of the agents in the Secret Service in her pre-filming hand gun school. Very impressive, even if the movie she appears in is not.
2/5. Easy to skip, unless you just love Douglas or Sutherland, or fairly generic thrillers.
Summary of The Sentinel
Clint Eastwood may be a little too old (plus he kind of already did his own version of this movie in 1993's In the Line of Fire), but Harrison Ford could have been The Sentinel's lead and lent the same kind of top-flight Hollywood superstar craft that Michael Douglas brings as a superstar secret service agent fighting a frame-up in a panicky countdown to peril. That the marquee name could have belonged to anyone with the same chops as Douglas is no slam to him, Ford, Eastwood, or anyone else of their ilk. The Sentinel is a crackling good thriller because everyone involved is working at the top of their game. Pete Garrison (Douglas) is on the presidential protection detail when another agent is murdered. A creepy informer tells Garrison about an elaborate assassination conspiracy that's related and well underway. Garrison also happens to be having an affair with the First Lady (Kim Basinger), the stress of which causes him to flunk a lie detector test when word of the plot to kill the president becomes more than just paranoia. Garrison is soon on the run, being hunted by his protege David Breckinridge (Kiefer Sutherland, whose 24 experience gives his performance an extra edge). But Garrison is the best, using all his secret service wiles (and there are plenty, the details of which give added tension and authenticity to the taut script) to evade his former comrades as the clock ticks. You can often see the plot thickening a mile away, and as much as the movie wants to keep us guessing, the real bad guy is an easy mark for the audience. But the energy and kinetic skill which propel the action are always spot on and enough to keep us from caring about the giveaways. Co-star Eva Longoria is miles away from her Desperate Housewives role and miles away from any real import of character in the movie. But the rest of the cast and the whooshing forward momentum of style and anxiety are plenty to keep The Sentinel in full-tilt suspense mode from beginning to end.--Ted FryDVD Video
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