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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
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.
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.
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.
Michael Douglas goes through the motions of playing an action man in this plodding and pedestrian political suspense thriller.
It's a pity that a film with so much promise descends into such lazy predictability.
Without any mystery or twists, all you're left with is a jumble that Jack Bauer and Chloe O'Brien could unravel before the first commercial break on a single episode of "24."
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| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 66% 66% | Public Enemies |
| 83% 83% | Harry Potter and the H… |
| 44% 44% | Night at the Museum: B… |
| 75% 75% | Julie & Julia |
| 32% 32% | Terminator Salvation |
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 90% 90% | District 9 |
| 86% 86% | 500 Days of Summer |
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