It's as dutiful and humorless as any lesser Harrison Ford vehicle, though not as unforgivable as this year's Ford jalopy, Firewall.
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 taut thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat. It reminds you of "24," which is a good thing, since "24" is about the best thing that ever happened to TV.
A serviceable, workaday thriller, no better or no worse than any other thriller you've seen lately.
Can Michael Douglas still command attention at the fore of an action film? Yes%u2026 but it's perhaps the only interesting facet of "The Sentinel."
Strictly boilerplate...fail[s] to pursue any interesting avenues, using the cardboard characters as mere shooting-range targets.
It gets harder to believe the more the movie goes along, but it's exciting action and it's entertaining, so who cares if plausibility is stretched to the breaking point and beyond.
...the movie equivalent of the book you pick up to read at the beach or on a long airplane flight.
Throwing in a shoot-out here and there to keep the juices flowing, Sentinel entertains, but never convinces.
It's obvious that nobody believed in this project longer than it took for the check to clear.
It leads to a climax that's both confusing AND boring, which is really the only noteworthy feat the film accomplishes.
Decent, but nothing special, as an entertaining time killer and as a kind of ode to the U.S. Secret Service.
Fun, action packed movie that starts off as a complex mystery, but devolves into an implausible chase movie. Then, you realize it doesn't matter because you are enjoying yourself.
...horrible, anticlimactic last two minutes mar this chase mystery, which entertains despite some sloppy story telling.
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.
Why would Michael Douglas attach himself to a Washington thriller as deeply ridiculous, suspense-free and potentially career-damaging as The Sentinel?
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.
Sentinel is a medium-dumb thriller that starts out with momentary promise but gets progressively sillier.
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 dialogue is wooden, so are many of the subsidiary performances, but the action is often good.
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.
Latest News for The Sentinel
April 19, 2007:
Box Office Guru Preview: "Vacancy" Hopes for Full Occupancy
Another week, another horror film. That's the mantra in Hollywood at the moment. Among the four new films going into wide release this weekend are Sony's terror tale... More...
May 07, 2006:
Box Office Wrapup: "Mission: Impossible III" Big, But Not Huge at #1
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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