The cat-and-mouse game between Douglas and Kiefer Sutherland (as Jack Bauer in a nicer suit) is all mouse and no cat, and the action scenes are hampered by poor shooting and slipshod editing.
The Sentinel (2006)
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Reviews Counted:133
Fresh:44
Rotten:89
Average Rating:5/10
Consensus: The Sentinel starts off well enough but quickly wears thin with too many plot holes and conventional action sequences.
Rated: PG-13 [See Full Rating] for some intense action violence and a scene of sensuality
Runtime: 1 hr 48 mins
Genre: Action/Adventure
Theatrical Release:Apr 21, 2006 Wide
Box Office: $36,226,144
Synopsis: Pete Garrison is a U.S. Secret Service agent who saved a president's life by jumping in front of a hail of bullets, over twenty years ago. Well-liked and respected by his colleagues in the... Pete Garrison is a U.S. Secret Service agent who saved a president's life by jumping in front of a hail of bullets, over twenty years ago. Well-liked and respected by his colleagues in the Secret Service, Garrison is a career agent who now heads the First Lady's detail. He lives in a high-level, orderly world of hierarchical structure, plans, maps, motorcades, code names, lingo and procedures. It's a universe that makes sense, until secrets begin to tear it apart. Pete's fellow agent and friend, Charlie Merriweather, hints at wanting to share critical and confidential information. Before that can happen, however, Merriweather is shot dead at his house in a crime that is made to look like a botched robbery. The investigation falls to the Secret Service's top investigative agent, David Breckinridge, a volatile combination of by-the-book and hothead, Garrison's protégé, and, until recently one of Garrison's best friends. Breckinridge follows the evidence and only the evidence and scrupulously tries to avoid working from his gut. That's what being a great investigator requires. Garrison, as perhaps the greatest protective agent in the service, often has to work from gut, from pure instinct. In protective work that is often all you have. Garrison's and Breckinridge's recent falling out was triggered by Breckinridge's mistaken belief that Garrison was having an affair with Breckinridge's now ex-wife. Jill Marin, a tough, sassy and ambitious young agent who just graduated second in her class at the Secret Service Academy, arrives for her first field posting. She has requested a work detail with Breckinridge because Garrison, while leading a field instruction exercise at the Academy told Jill that Breckinridge was the best investigator in the entire Service. Together the trio begins to uncover what appears to be an inside job to assassinate the president – a traitor in the ranks of the Secret Service. It's never happened in the institution's 141-year history. Suspicion ultimately falls on Garrison, who's going to find it extremely difficult to clear his name because someone is framing him. Whoever is framing Garrison knows he's vulnerable because he's devoting considerable effort to hiding a monumental secret. Suspected of being treasonous, Garrison goes on the run, pursued by Breckinridge and Marin – his own colleagues – as he tries to nail the real mole and save the president's life. --© 20th Century Fox [More]
Starring: Kiefer Sutherland, Kim Basinger, Michael Douglas, Martin Donovan
Starring: Kiefer Sutherland, Kim Basinger, Michael Douglas, Martin Donovan, Blair Brown, Ritchie Coster, David Rasche, Eva Longoria
Director: Clark Johnson
Director: Clark Johnson
Screenwriter: George Nolfi
Producer: Michael Douglas, Arnon Milchan, Bill Carraro
Composer: Christophe Beck
Studio: 20th Century Fox
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Reviews for The Sentinel
Michael Douglas might have been hired for the star power he could bring for a good opening weekend [but] it's . . . Kiefer Sutherland who walks off with the film
The plot reassembles elements from In the Line of Fire, The Fugitive, and a dozen other films, but the result feels impressively fresh.
I could identify the mole in 'The Sentinel' the first time he appeared on camera. Don't you hate it when that happens in a movie?
[The film] has more holes than Bush's war plan and employs less fluent English.
The movie keeps running in circles, creating the illusion of progress. But by the end, you've gone nowhere. The Manchurian Candidate it isn't.
The Sentinel runs through its contrived and prescribed paces efficiently enough, but with minimal real tension or the kind of character involvement that really makes you invest in its outcome.
A paint-by-numbers thriller so derivative that you can’t help but think about how much you’d rather be watching the numerous movies it apes.
Throwing in a shoot-out here and there to keep the juices flowing, Sentinel entertains, but never convinces.
The fast-food of the genre - it "gets the job done" and fills you up, but the hunger for more will undoubtedly return sooner rather than later.
It's a sleek piece of entertainment with attractive performers who deliver exactly what's expected of them.
The Sentinel's brains may be mush, but its brawn is powered by superb stunts, high-tech gizmos and a potent sense of peril.
A routine yet diverting political thriller ... if it doesn't reach new moviemaking heights, that's probably because it's not aiming for them.
It gets harder to believe the more the movie goes along, but it's exciting action and it's entertaining, so who cares if plausibility is stretched to the breaking point and beyond.
Even after you get past its familiarity, the plot is so improbably complicated that you lose confidence in it.
The Sentinel could easily pass for a generic straight-to-DVD release if it wasn't for the presence of Michael Douglas.
Latest News for The Sentinel
April 19, 2007:
Box Office Guru Preview: "Vacancy" Hopes for Full Occupancy
Another week, another horror film. That's the mantra in Hollywood at the moment. Among the four new films going into wide release this weekend are Sony's terror tale... More...
May 07, 2006:
Box Office Wrapup: "Mission: Impossible III" Big, But Not Huge at #1
Tom Cruise climbed into his usual number one spot at the box office with his heavily-hyped spy sequel Mission: Impossible III, however ticket sales fell below most industry... More...
April 24, 2006:
"Silent" is Golden on a Slow Box Office Weekend
Sony rode a press blackout to first place with their video game horror flick "Silent Hill." The gothic creepfest earned an estimated $20.2 million from 2,900 theaters,... More...
April 20, 2006:
Critical Consensus: A Weak "Sentinel," So-So "Dreamz" Are Made Of This, "Silent Hill" Not Screened
This week at the movies we've got a Secret Service agent on a mission ("The Sentinel"), an "American Idol"- skewering political satire ("American... More...
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