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Movie Review: The Sentinel

“Sentinel” a good story with a few flaws

By Kevin McQuarn
kmcquarn@theadvocate.com
Online Entertainment Editor

Pete Garrison (Michael Douglas) confronts David Breckinridge (Kiefer Sutherland), who suspects Garrison of plotting to assassinate the U.S. president in "The Sentinel."
Courtesy of 20th Century Fox
Pete Garrison (Michael Douglas) confronts David Breckinridge (Kiefer Sutherland), who suspects Garrison of plotting to assassinate the U.S. president in "The Sentinel."

The Sentinel
PLAY OFFICIAL TRAILER
Starring:
Michael Douglas, Kiefer Sutherland, Kim Basinger, Eva Longoria
Crew:
Director, Clark Johnson; Writers, Gerald Petievich, George Nolfi
(Running time: 1 hr. 48 min.)
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Critic's Rating: out of 4 stars.
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“The Sentinel” is the story of Pete Garrison (Michael Douglas), a Secret Service agent who has an affair with the first lady of the United States (Kim Basinger). If this isn’t enough to get him blindfolded and brought to a deserted site for “questioning,” he is also the key suspect in a plot to assassinate the president (David Rasche).

Even though I’m not a huge fan of Douglas, I really enjoyed him in this role. He was both believable and entertaining.

Kiefer Sutherland also turned out to be a great choice to play opposite Douglas. I knew he could do the intense-agent-with-a-time-limit character, but to see him hold his own against such a veteran actor was impressive.

“The Sentinel” had great main characters and a decent story. Unfortunately, the characterization of the supporting cast was a bit weak. Eva Longoria, for instance, had no reason to be in this movie. She had very few lines and did absolutely nothing to help the story along.

I also had no idea why the first lady was cheating on her husband. Was he abusive? Was it a marriage of convenience? Did she disagree with how he voted on the last environmental bill?

One simple line about President Ballentine’s rampant infidelity, secret “indiscretions” or the before-mentioned environmental bill could have easily explained the first lady’s tawdry affair.

Characterization was also a problem with the president. Honestly, I didn’t care that his wife was cheating on him or that he was about to be assassinated. Sure, he was the president, and that would be tragic, but beyond that, I had no emotional attachment to the character at all.

The biggest problem I had with this movie was that the “masterminds” behind the assassination plot were stumbled upon too easily. I won’t go into detail, but world-class terrorists aren’t supposed to be stupid.

It was as if the writers couldn’t think of any way to expose the bad guys, so after a few drinks, they just gave up. I mean, really, with the amount of money and time our government spends on anti-terrorist tactics in real life, creating a way to find a terrorist in the middle of Washington D.C. for a movie shouldn’t be that hard.

Fortunately, even with all of its flaws, “The Sentinel” still managed to tell an interesting story with great central characters.

This isn’t a movie I’d rush to add to my DVD collection, but I’d definitely check it out again if it came on network television

 

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