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The Sentinel (2006)
Tomatometer
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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.
Runtime: 1 hr 48 mins
Genre: Action/Adventure
US 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
Reviews for The Sentinel
A serviceable, workaday thriller, no better or no worse than any other thriller you've seen lately.
It's a shame that "The Sentinel" wastes its intelligent façade, because with all the unthrilling thrillers that have come and gone from movie screens, this one might have been worth something.
Gives a good name to the brand of cookie-cutter thriller that satisfies like no other.
In between is a slickly executed generic thriller that, like its humorless investigator Breckinridge, does it all by the book.
So, although some enjoyment can be had from watching The Sentinel with an uncritical eye, it remains a deeply flawed piece of mainstream action entertainment.
The story and style fit comfortably with today's TV and movie fashions: the cop procedural, kinetic editing, a pressure-cooker job rife with competition, and a countdown to possible disaster.
If it weren't for the clout of its two leading men, The Sentinel would be nothing more than a made-for-cable or direct-to-DVD feature.
Johnson doubtless planned to deliver a hand-wringing thriller filled with unexpected twists and turns, but even good intentions can find themselves caught in the line of fire.
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.
The Sentinel, a thriller that delivers a few pulse-pounding moments before running aground on its own derivativeness.
Strictly boilerplate...fail[s] to pursue any interesting avenues, using the cardboard characters as mere shooting-range targets.
It's somewhat predictable and uses many cliche devices, but it keeps the audience guessing at least part of the time.
A half-hearted exercise in political paranoia,The Sentinel unravels its wrong-man scenario with business-like efficiency and an impressively jittery visual scheme, but falls far short of providing visceral or emotional thrills.
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
Decent, but nothing special, as an entertaining time killer and as a kind of ode to the U.S. Secret Service.
Director Clark Johnson ("S.W.A.T.") brings a little style to what is otherwise a pretty meat and potatoes presidential thriller with a solid if unexceptional cast.
It may be slick and entertaining, but this is also one of the most careless political thrillers ever made.
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