DotTheEyes
Movie Fan
...is on DVD now.
The Sentinel is an extremely formulaic race-against-time thriller set in the high-tension world of the Secret Service. It stars Michael Douglas as a legendary agent who, after being falsely implicated in a plot to assassinate the President, must evade his former protégé-turned-fierce pursuer (Kiefer Sutherland) and prove his own innocence. As you may except, there are many suspicious glances cast among the characters and even more scenes where people race from one location to another, all culminating in a twist ending as predictable as it is uninspired.
Considering the pedigree of the A-list cast (Douglas and Sutherland are joined by Eva Longoria and Kim Basinger), it's disappointing how mediocre the performances are. Douglas is adept at playing suit-and-tie-wearing professionals who don't suffer fools, but there's a detectable sense of boredom to his acting here. He's going through the motions and it shows. Sutherland's slightly better, as he injects more ferocious energy into his role. He does tend, though, to confuse brooding with sleepiness (perhaps another case of a good actor being bored by stale material).
Longoria almost doesn't register at all as Sutherland's character's hotshot new protégé. I suspect she was only cast in hopes her name on the poster would draw in dedicated "Desperate Housewives" followers who may not've otherwise paid attention to a macho thriller such as this. Kim Basinger delivers the film's best performance. She's quite graceful in the thin role of the First Lady with whom Douglas' character is having a passionate affair.
The director (whose only other film credit is S.W.A.T., a far superior action-thriller) is desperate to thrill. He uses almost every stylistic gag in his arsenal, including hand-held photography, flashy scene-to-scene transitions, and slow motion, to raise pulses, but, in the end, he fails to create suspense where none truly exists. The screenplay is far worse, however. What character development there is is elementary and the simplistic plot is easy to figure out (it's intended to be puzzling and intriguing). I was especially disappointed when, after hearing how crafty and skilled Douglas' character is, all we see is him do is fire a handgun, boost a sedan, and scale a fire escape. Jason Bourne, he isn't.
Overall, The Sentinel isn't one of the year's worst films by any means (I did enjoy the final shootout in an industrial basement and a screaming match between the characters played by Douglas and Sutherland), but it's so damn unspectacular and pat in every way, I can't bring myself to recommend it.
The Sentinel is an extremely formulaic race-against-time thriller set in the high-tension world of the Secret Service. It stars Michael Douglas as a legendary agent who, after being falsely implicated in a plot to assassinate the President, must evade his former protégé-turned-fierce pursuer (Kiefer Sutherland) and prove his own innocence. As you may except, there are many suspicious glances cast among the characters and even more scenes where people race from one location to another, all culminating in a twist ending as predictable as it is uninspired.
Considering the pedigree of the A-list cast (Douglas and Sutherland are joined by Eva Longoria and Kim Basinger), it's disappointing how mediocre the performances are. Douglas is adept at playing suit-and-tie-wearing professionals who don't suffer fools, but there's a detectable sense of boredom to his acting here. He's going through the motions and it shows. Sutherland's slightly better, as he injects more ferocious energy into his role. He does tend, though, to confuse brooding with sleepiness (perhaps another case of a good actor being bored by stale material).
Longoria almost doesn't register at all as Sutherland's character's hotshot new protégé. I suspect she was only cast in hopes her name on the poster would draw in dedicated "Desperate Housewives" followers who may not've otherwise paid attention to a macho thriller such as this. Kim Basinger delivers the film's best performance. She's quite graceful in the thin role of the First Lady with whom Douglas' character is having a passionate affair.
The director (whose only other film credit is S.W.A.T., a far superior action-thriller) is desperate to thrill. He uses almost every stylistic gag in his arsenal, including hand-held photography, flashy scene-to-scene transitions, and slow motion, to raise pulses, but, in the end, he fails to create suspense where none truly exists. The screenplay is far worse, however. What character development there is is elementary and the simplistic plot is easy to figure out (it's intended to be puzzling and intriguing). I was especially disappointed when, after hearing how crafty and skilled Douglas' character is, all we see is him do is fire a handgun, boost a sedan, and scale a fire escape. Jason Bourne, he isn't.
Overall, The Sentinel isn't one of the year's worst films by any means (I did enjoy the final shootout in an industrial basement and a screaming match between the characters played by Douglas and Sutherland), but it's so damn unspectacular and pat in every way, I can't bring myself to recommend it.
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