Dir. Clark Johnson
Writ. George Nolfi
Act. Michael Douglas, Keifer Sutherland, Eva Longoria

I am happy to say that The Sentinel was able to achieve this year what last year's The Interpreter was unable to do, which was provide a bit of actual sense of tension in the movie. It does have the typical cast characters and one new hottie, yeah Eva Longoria, and the story is ok, except the ending. However in this season of horrible cinema, The Sentinel should keep you entertained.

Michael Douglas (The In-laws) stars as Pete Garrison, aging Secret Service Agent who is the only agent remaining from the Reagan Presidency, who actually took a bullet for him. For this President, however, he is actually the lead agent for the 1st Lady Sarah Ballentine, played by Kim Basinger (Cellular.) What the President doesn't know is that the 1st Lady and Garrison are having an affair, and Garrison is being framed by someone within the secret service who is trying to help terrorists kill the President. Secret Service Investigative Agents David Breckenridge, played by Keifer Sutherland (TV's 24) and Jill Marin, played by Eva Longoria (TV's Desperate Housewives) are investigating the assassination plot and all evidence points toward Garrison. Garrison becomes a fugitive from the Secret Service while he tries to find the terrorists and the real Secret Service conspirator before the President is assassinated.

In terms of this type of thriller genre, to me, The Fugitive is still the modern day benchmark. So compared to that movie, The Sentinel, specifically the story, is somewhat hokey. I have a hard time imagining that a secret service agent can bang the President of the United States wife and not have anybody no about it. Also, much like in last year's Interpreter, I can't imagine the complete breakdown in security that takes place in the climatic scene would actually happen in a country with so many of the world leaders in one place. I also knew from the beginning who was the secret service mole, they did not do a good job of hiding that. The script is based on a novel by Gerald Petievich who has two other books turned into movies, Boiling Point, and To Live and Die in L.A. The script was written by George Nolfi who just penned Ocean's Twelve. I don't know where my plot weaknesses came from, but they are not horrible, just wish they had approached it a different way. I will say that they did have me guessing as to when Garrison was going to be able to start gathering evidence proving he was innocent.

I thought director Clark Johnson did a nice job of keeping the suspense going and keeping the scenes believable. Although I will say that this movie was not a stretch for him because he earned a Emmy ® nomination for directing the TV show The Shield and has directed many episodes of Homicide: Life on the Streets.

Michael Douglas and Kiefer Sutherland phoned in these performances but I don't mean that in a negative way, but these two have done this type of character before so it was no challenge to them. I did like Eva Longoria's non-performance. She did a good job of not trying to add too much to her character and letting the main actors take up the screen. I will say that not only is she hot, but the fact that she was holding a gun constantly was also a big turn on. I wish Martin Donovan (Insomnia) had a bigger role in the movie. For the importance of his character, the script did not have him in that much and I find him to be a fine actor and he could only have helped the movie.

Like I said, this movie won't make anybody forget about the Fugitive, but it is leaps and bounds ahead of last year's stinker, The Interpreter. However, considering we are only two weeks away from the summer blockbusters, you could probably wait until DVD for this movie.

Brian - the Naked Gun