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The Sentinel

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The Sentinel (2006)

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Reviews Counted:31

Fresh:10

Rotten:21

Average Rating:5.1/10

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

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Reviews for The Sentinel

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1 - 11 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
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Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | comment Comment
10/18/08
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Full Review Source: Sydney Morning Herald | comment Comment
08/04/06
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Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | comment Comment
09/02/06
Peter Bradshaw
Peter Bradshaw
Guardian [UK]
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More Shadow Conspiracy than In The Line Of Fire, this suffers from serious quality control issues. If you’re looking for superior suspense, buy a 24 box set instead.

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
09/01/06
Nick De Semlyen
Nick De Semlyen
Empire Magazine
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Nobody’s better than Michael Douglass as playing that guy who makes that big mistake, and then spends the rest of the movie trying to atone for it.

Full Review Source: Ebert & Roeper | comment Comment
04/24/06
Richard Roeper
Richard Roeper
Ebert & Roeper
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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.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
04/21/06
Justin Chang
Justin Chang
Variety
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It's a competent, if forgettable and implausible, thriller with some decent acting on the part of Sutherland and Michael Douglas as Secret Service agents.

Full Review Source: USA Today | comment Comment
04/20/06
Claudia Puig
Claudia Puig
USA Today
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Why would Michael Douglas attach himself to a Washington thriller as deeply ridiculous, suspense-free and potentially career-damaging as The Sentinel?

comment Comment
04/20/06
Manohla Dargis
Manohla Dargis
New York Times
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Yes, it's not always plausible and unapologetically by the numbers, but when the numbers are polished to such a high sheen, it would be next door to treason to complain.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | comment Comment
04/20/06
Kenneth Turan
Kenneth Turan
Los Angeles Times
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Sentinel is a medium-dumb thriller that starts out with momentary promise but gets progressively sillier.

Full Review Source: Washington Post | comment Comment
04/20/06
Desson Thomson
Desson Thomson
Washington Post
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At a time when American audiences seem grateful for the opportunity to drool at mindless horror trash, it is encouraging that well-crafted thrillers are still being made about characters who have dialogue, identities, motives and clean shirts.

Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment Comment
04/20/06
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
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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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