User reviews

You'd think Michael Douglas would have learned his lesson by this time, but apparently he hasn't. For even after all the trouble he had with an adulterous romance in "Fatal Attraction," here he is in "The Sentinel" playing the role of Pete Garrison, a veteran secret service agent who's having an affair with none other than the First Lady of the United States. Even worse, when it is discovered that there may be a mole secretly operating in the service, the finger of suspicion begins to point directly at Mr. Garrison. Is he truly the undercover operative working to bring down the President, or is he merely a tool being set up as a convenient fall guy in a plot to rub out the nation's chief executive?

Based on the novel by Gerald Petievich, "The Sentinel" is a decent enough thriller set in the high stakes world of political assassination. Although it frequently strains credibility, gets lost in a maze of cyber/techno mumbo jumbo, and succumbs to a few too many man-on-the-run clichés, the movie still manages to generate enough mystery and suspense to see us through most of its many rough patches. Prime credit goes to Douglas, who after all these years, could clearly do these roles in his sleep, and to Keifer Sutherland, who plays a fellow agent with personal reasons for doubting Garrison's probity and loyalty to the institution. Kim Basinger also does a fine job as the beautiful First Lady torn between duty towards her husband and the man she loves.

You'll probably forget this movie the moment you walk out of the theater, but you should have a reasonably fun time while you're still in your seat.

Michael Douglas is a secret service agent framed in a plot to kill the President of the US. Kiefer Sutherland is the agent on his tail.

Its not a bad movie its just been there done that with form over content film making. There is no real tension because the actors are in roles they've played a dozen or so times before (Sutherland in 24 each week)so you can pretty much walk them through whats happening.Thats the problem here, its all been done before, better.

The real question is: Do I really need to pay 10 bucks a head to see whats a essentially a big screen TV movie? I think not. As I said its not bad, its just not worth running out to the theater to see. Wait for cable where this movie really belongs.

This movie had all the potential in the world to be a modern-day "In The Line Of Fire", with great suspense, story, acting, action, etc... but the Director missed the ball. Every action and suspenseful scene was missing the added element that separates TV-movies from box-office blockbusters. It's hard to put into words, but watching all the action and suspense scenes felt like I was watching a mid-budget USA or TBS movie. The cast was great and them combined with a good screenplay and overall plot saves this movie from being a disaster. There was too little character building as well, especially for the 'bad guys'. The story was still good and the movie overall will still be entertaining, but needless to say, I was disappointed.

The veteran agent of the American secret service Pete Garrison (Michael Douglas) saved the life of president Ronald Reagan in the past and became a legend. Presently he is responsible for the personal security of the American president Ballentine (David Rasche) and the first lady Sarah Ballentine (Kim Bassinger), with whom he is having a love affair. When his informer Walter discloses that there is a traitor in the secret service and a plot to kill the president, his former friend David Breckinridge (Kiefer Sutherland) and the chief of the secret service William Montrose (Martin Donovan) are in charge of the investigation and all the agents are submitted to a polygraph test. Due to his situation with Sarah, he is compromised with the results and accused of treachery. He escapes, and in spite of chased by the secret service, he conducts his own investigation trying to find the responsible.

"The Sentinel" has a reasonable idea, of an agent failing in the polygraph test due to his love affair with the first lady, but the screenplay does not have any care for the characters. The running time should be longer and not waste in so many exaggerated details relative to the protection of the American president, and give more attention to the characters. In the end, the story is conventional, badly resolved and with bureaucratic performances of the good cast. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Sentinela" ("Sentinel")

In 'The Sentinel' Michael Douglas plays Pete Garrison, a veteran Secret Service agent. He is being investigated by David Breckinridge (Kiefer Sutherland) when it comes to light that there may be a traitor in the Secret Service who might be involved in an assassination plot. But David takes his investigation rather personal because he also feels Pete had an affair with his ex-wife. Agent Garrison must now prove his innocence and protect a President that everyone else believes he is trying to kill.

This film was rather disappointing. It is too much like 'In the Line of Fire' only not as good. There are several plot lines that go unexplained and few circumstances that are too unbelievable. It was not a convincing film.

Neither Michael Douglas nor Kim Basinger did that good of a job. Kiefer Sutherland seemed to be reprising his role from '24'.

I just hope the novel was a little better.

It's been 19 years since Gordon Gekko used "Wall Street" to let us know that greed is good. Now, Michael Douglas takes the GG persona and morphs it into a Secret Service agent, Pete Garrison. Guess what? It works! This is a solid political thriller that kept me guessing. The detail work in showing the security precautions taken by the SS on behalf of the President and First Lady was likewise intriguing. All the leads were pretty good but, try as I might, I could not accept Eva Longoria as a Secret Service agent. Whereas Jodie Foster just made you suspend belief and really think she was FBI agent Starling in "Silence of the Lambs", you do not get the same feeling with Longoria. Nevertheless, this is a fun film, escapist entertainment with the Beltway as the backdrop.

"The Sentinel" is an average-at-best action drama that does not come remotely close to reaching its potential. The entire movie feels rushed, with random details about each character's past thrown at you in a poorly-written screenplay. The revelation of the true bad guy in conspiracy films normally elicits at least some form of surprise or intrigue; instead, in "The Sentinel" the character is far too obvious and the scene reveals a tangential and unexplained back story that should instead be much more central to the plot.

The rush to cram details in every fleeting moment ruins this movie. For example, without spoiling the film, the culminating chase of the movie is ruined by a ridiculous proclamation of certain password to get by people; the ridiculousness of the situation takes away from what should be a tense finish.

This review is not meant to be overly disparaging; the film received 5/10 because it is a moderately entertaining summer movie and I did not regret going to see it. However, the skeleton plot seemed to be trying too hard and the characters were not well-utilized. Eva Longoria is very attractive though.

There was some hesitation from my part about what this movie had to offer. For starters, the casting didn't seem right. Kiefer Sutherland had already done very well in "24" and the preview didn't seem to offer anything challenging to him or the audience. Eva Longoria appeared out of place, and the rest didn't seem very interesting.

When the film finally ended, I was not completely displeased for I had seen a decent thriller that could have been much better, had the responsible parties taken a little more care to watch for the narrative gaps and given a little more care to character development. We have seen threats of this type before, and that made the main conflict much more challenging to the writers. As an audience, we don't want to sit through the same old story again. We want to see something different, be thrilled and entertained.

There is nothing wrong with the casting. From Kim Basinger's delicious first lady. She carries herself with enough grace and sex appeal to make the part memorable. Michael Douglas has been and done that before. Unfortunately, the president is much of a non entity to even care about his fate. Sutherland rehashes his "24" tough guy approach with enough power to make it big enough for the big screen, and Eva does a passable job, as the newcomer.

Don't expect as many twists and fireworks as some of the established classics ("North by Northwest" and "The Fugitive" come to mind). Leave your expectations outside and enjoy the ride for whatever it might be. It's o.k.

Spoiler!!! Stop now if you don't know the ending. I hate Tom Cruise Mission Impossible bastardizations. In the old TV series that used to be one of my all time favorites, Mr. Phelps was the voice of God. He was the ultimate Good Guy. Cruise's updated version of MI (No. 1) turned Mr. Phelps into the Bad Guy. That's like making Tonto the Bad Guy who does in the Lone Ranger. I hate movies -- or novels -- that do that, where it turns out that the DA prosecuting the innocent accused killer turns out to have done the murder himself, or the Vice President turns out to be the mole from the whatever enemy who poisons the President -- or in the case of the Sentinel, the head of the Secret Service turns out to be the Bad Guy about to kill the Prez. I warned you, that's a huge spoiler. But to me, that kind of plot is already spoiled. As the main revelation of the movie, it stinks.

Besides that, even if you don't have any more trust in your leaders than to give credence to "Mr. Phelps" turnabouts, Sentinel has some other gaping holes just too big to let slide. Maybe, just maybe, you could buy that the First Lady is having an affair with her SS detail chief behind the Prez's back. That's not impossible. Presidents have affairs, why not First Ladies? But can you really believe a guy could rise to the top of the Service itself without ever having been fully screened? Really! You think? And what was that mystery terror organization behind the plot, and how did they get onto the SS head's entanglement with the now-defunct KGB? Hmmnh? Another poser: Can anyone explain how that Xavier loser guy got all that insider info about the First Lady's affair with Douglas to begin with -- if you tell me it was the Head of the Service feeding it to him, then why the whole rest of the movie? He would have just removed the Douglas character for cause from the outset, don't cha know? The cast was good and the acting was varsity level. I liked that Michael Douglas gets to act his age, and the plot doesn't let him get away with being a 60 year old superstud who can outrun the young agents under his charge. He is slow, and he gets winded quickly. I liked Keifer. I never watched 24, but now I think I'd like it. And it was good to see Kim Basinger again, after all those years when she dropped out.

If you ignore the plot holes and the revolting spoiler, you could really like the movie for what it shows you about the inner workings of the Secret Service, one of the all-time real success stories of government service. A Beltway insider who should know told me that that part of the film was A+, and I'll take his word for it.

Greetings again from the darkness. Slightly above average political thriller with SURPRISE ... Michael Douglas wearing an expensive suit! Directed by Clark Johnson, who was so fine as Meldrick in "Homicide: Life on the Streets", this film had real potential to travel down roads no other film had touched. In the end it is a bit disappointing because it gives up too soon and takes an all too familiar plot turn.

The scenes with Douglas and Kiefer Sutherland barking at each other like two frat boys chasing the same girl are easily the highlights. Eva Longoria was obviously cast to entice some "Desperate Housewives" fans who otherwise would have no use for a testosterone driven thriller. She brings little to the table ... other than her looks, and has light years to go before she could be considered a movie star. Martin Donovan has the requisite stone face and beady eyes for his role and Kim Basinger is downright stunning as the First Lady. Also, it is nice to see Blair Brown back in the White House, even in her curiously limited role.

The film opens with some beautiful shots of the many historical buildings, landmarks and monuments in D.C. Regrettably, the photography in the rest of the film, as well as the structure of many of the scenes just can't maintain that standard. Overall, it is a fun film ... especially for those who enjoy the Secret Service stuff. However, it disappoints because it could have been much more with some unconventional twists and turns added.

Remember the good old days when movies were supposed to be a form of fun entertainment where you could forget about everything except for what you're watching on the big screen? Well those days are back thanks to The Sentinel.

Michael Douglas and Kiefer Sutherland unite friendly demographics and Eva Longoria and Kim Basinger provide solid eye candy throughout this well-oiled never-boring entertainment. Douglas and Sutherland have plenty of on-screen time together and largely act like intelligent good-intentioned Secret Service agents hell-bent on protecting the presidency.

There's plenty of story-line and a plot that just keeps unfolding and unfolding without getting too far out of control. Perhaps there are some question marks raised by potential plot holes but it doesn't get in the way of a what is a purely fun and entertaining movie. Never a dull moment in this one.

After seeing a commercial for "The Sentinel", my friend said it looked like "24: The Movie". Fortunately, it's not. It isn't, however, a super-amazing gripping the edge of your seat type thriller either. It moves along at a nice page, the acting is good (except for Eva Longoria...who seems to think acting equals pouting and frowning), it's nice to see Toronto up on the big screen (even with all those pesky Canadian protesters...finally someone captured how violent and disturbing we hosers really are).

Not a bad night out if you just want to eat popcorn and forget about life.

I experimented writing this review using Chat GPT, its scary how good this thing is

"The Sentinel" is a thrilling political movie with Michael Douglas as Secret Service agent Pete Garrison, who's accused of plotting to kill the President.

Kiefer Sutherland co-stars as the intense young agent who's so serious, you could fry an egg on his forehead. The plot is fast-paced and full of twists, but let's be real, we're all just here to see Michael Douglas in a suit kicking butt.

Overall, it's a well-made thriller that will keep you entertained, and if you need a laugh, just stare into Kiefer Sutherland's forehead.

Based on the star power of the cast and the success of Kiefer Sutherland's TV series "24", I was intrigued about the potential of this story. However, I quickly found myself debating about the merits of going to bed early or staying with the movie to the ending. This story had too many holes concerning the background of the various characters involved, especially the people who are conspiring to assassinate the President. No explanation is provided as to their motives. Further, the personal dynamics of the 2 principal Secret Service agents concerns something that happened in their past. Again, no substance is provided as to why this became an issue. Other romantic relationships that are playing out in the background do not unfold in any manner to show why they are even woven in to the situation or where they are going. This movie certainly had potential, considering the climate of current world politics. But, the creation of a number of sub-plots all taking their turn as the focal point of the story, will only create a number of hanging unanswered questions if you are a thinker. If you want a mindless, quasi-action story, then you may like this one! On a positive note, I found Eva Longoria's performance to be quite good and a departure from the notorios "Gabrielle" on Desperate Housewives.

"The Sentinel" is a suspense-thriller that is neither suspenseful nor thrilling. Amazing that a film that is billed to be so fast-moving and exciting would be so dull and sleep-inducing. There seems to be a plot to assassinate the president (David Rasche). It becomes obvious early on that an insider in the Secret Service is assisting radicals from the former Soviet Union in their deviant goal. Michael Douglas, a veteran Secret Service agent who actually took a bullet on Reagan's failed assassination attempt, becomes the prime suspect due to a hidden affair he is having with the first lady (Kim Basinger). The typical chaos ensues with Douglas failing a lie detector test, being chased by Kiefer Sutherland (doing his best "24" impression) and red-hot new rookie Eva Longoria (doing her best to shed her "Desperate Housewives" image) and finally a silly resolution that brings everything together in a nicely wrapped package. Though ambitious and stylish, "The Sentinel" does nothing to endear itself to its audience. The characters are cardboard cutouts that just seem to be there and the plot has been done to death in variations for decades. Douglas and Basinger have absolutely no chemistry and honestly it seems they would have been better suited for their roles a good 10 or 15 years ago. Long and boring, "The Sentinel" does not have near enough going for it to warrant more than a very mediocre review. 2.5 out of 5 stars.