Posted on 05/23/2006 11:41:31 PM PDT by L.A.Justice
Aside from the presence of the always watchable Michael Douglas, “The Sentinel” boasts two brilliant plot points that should have made for a spectacularly satisfying thriller. First, it’s main character (Douglas) is a Secret Service veteran who has fallen into a passionate, wildly irresponsible and passionate affair with the First Lady (Kim Basinger) he’s assigned to guard. Second, the Presidential protector learns of a mole within the guard detail who’s taking part in an elaborate conspiracy to kill the Commander in Chief and he must expose the traitor without revealing his own dangerous dalliance.
With this set-up, it’s hard to believe that the movie collapses into such a listless mess: in part because the filmmakers follow the stupid Hollywood convention of making even the vaguest reference to real-life terrorist threats. The bad-guys here are a synthetic, unscary collection of former KGB agents and mercenaries, in the employ of a fictional Asian nation, and deploying an idiotic assemblage of a dozen trained killers – ignoring the obvious history of most successful assassinations involving a single determined (often crazed) murderer.
The performances are serviceable if not superb, except for Kim Basinger who comes across as perpetually sedated (a status never explained in the slowmoving, increasingly preposterous plot.
In an age of real-world terrorism, a plot to kill the President could inspire a breathlessly exciting action film but the much-too-long “Sentinel” lets down its guard a full half-hour before its anti-climactic conclusion. Rated PG-13 for sex references and violence, along with a smattering of harsh language. TWO STARS. That’s a wrap. I’m Michael Medved for Eye on Entertainment
It was a good action film. Not as good as IN THE LINE OF FIRE or TO LIVE AND DIE IN L.A. though...Those films deal with US Secret Service.
This film is based on the novel by Gerald Petievich, who also wrote TO LIVE AND DIE IN L.A.
Kiefer Sutherland and Eva Longoria are also in this film.
David Rasche plays the president in THE SENTINEL. Rasche was the main character in the ABC comedy series SLEDGE HAMMER! That series was the spoof of Dirty Harry films. By the way, Rasche also was in UNITED 93. (That's according to the Internet Movie Database.)
I saw an ad for a coming movie version of "Miami Vice."
Unnngh.
Sledge Hammer as the President.
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