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Movies / Upcoming / The Sentinel
The Sentinel

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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.

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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81 - 100 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
Text View | |< << 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 >> >|
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The Sentinel is so bland that it wants only to be as good as TV.

Full Review Source: New York Post | comment Comment
04/21/06
Kyle Smith
Kyle Smith
New York Post

A routine yet diverting political thriller ... if it doesn't reach new moviemaking heights, that's probably because it's not aiming for them.

Full Review Source: Las Vegas Review-Journal | comment Comment
04/21/06
Carol Cling
Carol Cling
Las Vegas Review-Journal

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.

Full Review Source: New York Daily News | comment Comment
04/21/06
Jami Bernard
Jami Bernard
New York Daily News

It's a direct-to-DVD-quality effort with a byzantine pulp-airport-novel plot line.

Full Review Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | comment Comment
04/21/06
Duane Dudek
Duane Dudek
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The movie goes barreling full-speed ahead in the wrong direction, as if the umpteenth film about a potential presidential assassination could possibly compare to, say, any given episode of 24.

Full Review Source: Miami Herald | comment Comment
04/21/06
Peter Debruge
Peter Debruge
Miami Herald

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.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Daily News | comment Comment
04/21/06
Bob Strauss
Bob Strauss
Los Angeles Daily News

The Sentinel, a thriller that delivers a few pulse-pounding moments before running aground on its own derivativeness.

Full Review Source: Kansas City Star | comment Comment
04/21/06
Robert W. Butler
Robert W. Butler
Kansas City Star

The Sentinel's brains may be mush, but its brawn is powered by superb stunts, high-tech gizmos and a potent sense of peril.

Full Review Source: Houston Chronicle | comment Comment
04/21/06
Bruce Westbrook
Bruce Westbrook
Houston Chronicle

A rather mechanical, soulless affair that avoids politics or anything else that might clearly define who these characters are and why we should care.

Full Review Source: Hollywood Reporter | comment Comment
04/21/06
Kirk Honeycutt
Kirk Honeycutt
Hollywood Reporter

The Sentinel, a contrived and tepid thriller that insists on wanting to interest us in its main plot -- the usual nefarious plan to assassinate the leader of the free world.

Full Review Source: Globe and Mail | comment Comment
04/21/06
Rick Groen
Rick Groen
Globe and Mail

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.

Full Review Source: E! Online | comment Comment
04/21/06
E! Online
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

There are tense situations, daring escapes, shots fired, innocent civilians at risk, foreign terrorists. What else do you need?

Full Review Source: Detroit News | comment Comment
04/21/06
Tom Long
Tom Long
Detroit News

A decently crafted if dull innocent-man-on-the-run drama with all the excitement of a White House press briefing. We know most of the answers before there are questions.

Full Review Source: Detroit Free Press | comment Comment
04/21/06
Terry Lawson
Terry Lawson
Detroit Free Press

There are thousands of us in over-air-conditioned screening rooms all over the country, throwing our bodies between you and bad movies. When I see a bullet coming, I'll take the hit so you don't have to. Don't thank me, ma'am. It's my job.

Full Review Source: Slate | comment Comment
04/21/06
Grady Hendrix
Grady Hendrix
Slate

The Sentinel is nearly suspense-free, and it's galling to watch Sutherland take a back seat to the aging Michael Douglas.

Full Review Source: Deseret News, Salt Lake City | comment Comment
04/21/06
Jeff Vice
Jeff Vice
Deseret News, Salt Lake City

Implausible and overdirected, The Sentinel buries a fuzzy plot under a ton of frenzied action.

Full Review Source: Denver Rocky Mountain News | comment Comment
04/21/06
Robert Denerstein
Robert Denerstein
Denver Rocky Mountain News

The movie strains with fast cuts and Steadicam swoops to make thrilling a job that, while hardly mundane, should be routine.

Full Review Source: Denver Post | comment Comment
04/21/06
Lisa Kennedy
Lisa Kennedy
Denver Post

C'mon, how seriously are we supposed to take a film in which the President of the United States is played by Sledge Hammer! ???

Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | comment Comment
04/21/06
Scott Weinberg
Scott Weinberg
eFilmCritic.com

Unabashedly, the movie aims not to be original or daring, but to keep audiences plastered to their seats. Almost always, it whole-heartedly reaches that goal.

Full Review Source: Contra Costa Times | comment Comment
04/21/06
Randy Myers
Randy Myers
Contra Costa Times

I worry about the U.S. Secret Service, if The Sentinel is any indicator of its collective ability.

Full Review Source: Charlotte Observer | comment Comment
04/21/06
Lawrence Toppman
Lawrence Toppman
Charlotte Observer
 
 
81 - 100 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
Text View | |< << 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 >> >|
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Latest News for The Sentinel

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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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