DVD Review: The Sentinel

By Patrick Luce Aug 27, 2006, 14:38 GMT

There\'s never been a traitor in the United States Secret Service...until now. And the evidence points to Pete Garrison (Douglas), one of the most trusted agents on the force. Now on the run, with two relentless federal investigators (Sutherland and Longoria) hot on his heels, Garrison must fight to clear his name and thwart an attempt on the President\'s life before it\'s too late ...more

The Sentinel is a slick fast paced action/thriller that is loaded with stars, but suffers from too many clichés and too many plot holes. The film does manage a “popcorn” entertaining feel from start to finish, but is easily forgotten.

The movie was directed by Clark Johnson (the director who brought SWAT to the big screen), and was written by George Nolfi (who is currently cranking out a script for the screen adaptation of Hawaii Five-0). It has the Hollywood talent to deliver including Michael Douglas, Kiefer Sutherland, Eva Longoria, Kim Basinger and Blair Brown.

The Sentinel’s plot has been seen a thousand times, and features respected secret service agent Pete Garrison (Douglas) becoming the fall guy for a plot to kill the President. Garrison is a legend in the Secret Service (which has never had a traitor in the agency’s entire history), but he has a few skeletons in the closet. We quickly discover he is having an affair with the President’s wife – which is a secret that will be used to blackmail Garrison and give the Secret Service a motive to suspect him in the assassination attempt.

As Garrison is on the run, and trying to discover the real mole in the agency, he is pursued by David Breckinridge (Sutherland) – his former partner and best friend who also believes that Garrison had an affair with his wife. This belief fuels Sutherland’s quest to bring in Garrison, and blinds him to any of the evidence that points towards another mole.

In the middle of the entire conspiracy are First Lady Sarah Ballentine (Basinger) – who struggles to keep her affair secret or go public to help save Garrison - and new agent Jill Marin (Longoria) – who was trained by Garrison and can’t believe he is involved in the plot.

Douglas and Sutherland face off

Since the movie is so cliché, there is not much point in really going into the plot details. Needless to say, Garrison is on the run for most of the movie slowly uncovering who is really after the President; Breckinridge begins to have his own doubts about Garrison’s guilt; Basinger figures out whether or not to go public with the affair; and Longoria pretty much does nothing in the film except provide a pretty face (although that is not her fault, but simply a lack of character development).

Along with a plot that we have seen a hundred times before (from In the Line of Fire to The Jackal), the film also suffers from a lack of anything exciting to keep you on the edge of your seat while Douglas is on the run. There are also so many plot holes that it borders becoming a comedy (and that is not just because they cast Sledge Hammer as the President of the United States). 

Douglas’ flight from the Secret Service is really not that exciting because the agents all seem to be rather inept at actually tracking down a fugitive – even as he is strolling through a police station and requesting the crime lab to run a set of fingerprints. While you can forgive the film for a couple of plot holes or “dumb scenes,”  The Sentinel is filled with Douglas coming close to “MacGyver” moments or making the other Secret Service agents look like complete idiots.

The Sentinel also suffers from a weak main villain which brings the level of the film even further down to feeling like a bad television pilot. These moments take the edge off what should be a great political thriller or action film.

The DVD comes with several special features. There is an alternate ending – which doesn’t stray too far from the film’s theatrical ending; deleted scenes – which give a bit more information on some of the characters like Breckinridge; and commentary from Johnson and Nolfi. There are two featurettes involving the Secret Service – one is a making of the film and how they involved the agency, and the other is a history of the agency.

Longoria and Sutherland on the hunt

While The Sentinel is a somewhat entertaining “popcorn” film, it might disappoint viewers wanting something with a little more intelligence or thrills from the plot. The film has the cast to pull off what could have been a good movie, but gets weighed down by clichés and extremely bad plot holes.

The Sentinel is now available at Amazon. As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.