The Sentinel (DVD)

One of the President's most respected Secret Agents is framed for the murder of a fellow Secret Service operative and of plotting to kill the President. For Special Agent Peter Garrison (Michael Douglas) he has to clear his name and stop the attempt on the president's life, all the while keeping his affair with the first lady a secret. Whilst trying to clear his name and find the real culprit he comes face to face with his former protégé Agent Breckinridge ...
...
I went into the Sentinel off the back of watching Kiefer Sutherland in 24 and thought that this would be entertaining and action packed if nothing else. It was a film that slipped by me in 2006 but having appeared on my lovefilm recommendations I thought it would be worth giving it a try. It sees Sutherland and Douglas take on familiar roles as Secret Agents for the US government and in usual terms that is a pretty safe combination but something ... more

One of the President's most respected Secret Agents is framed for the murder of a fellow Secret Service operative and of plotting to kill the President. For Special Agent Peter Garrison (Michael Douglas) he has to clear his name and stop the attempt on the president's life, all the while keeping his affair with the first lady a secret. Whilst trying to clear his name and find the real culprit he comes face to face with his former protégé Agent Breckinridge (Kiefer Sutherland) and faces a race that could cost him his life to prove his innocence.

I went into the Sentinel off the back of watching Kiefer Sutherland in 24 and thought that this would be entertaining and action packed if nothing else. It was a film that slipped by me in 2006 but having appeared on my lovefilm recommendations I thought it would be worth giving it a try. It sees Sutherland and Douglas take on familiar roles as Secret Agents for the US government and in usual terms that is a pretty safe combination but something about this movie seemed clumsy and drawn out.

It's a shame really as director Clark Johnson was also the man behind the camera lens for one of my favourite action movies S.W.A.T. His work on that movie and the TV Series The Shield had probably enhanced my expectations and while the film looks good, with some decent special effects and well filmed sequences it's hugely let down by a needlessly over complicated plot. He does the best with what he has got but I think there are a few changes that really could have improved the appeal of this movie.

It seems that writer George Nolfi, who has also brought us The Bourne Ultimatum and Ocean's Twelve seems to try too hard with this one. The characters are a little too one dimensional and that leads to you not really caring about them till it's too late. The end of the movie works really well, but for the first hour or so the characters seem so unattached from each other and the audience that it just ruins what could have been a decent movie. He tries to use Sutherland's 24 persona to create something that will fail to appeal to its target audience.

The lead role see's Michael Douglas take on a role he could probably have played in his sleep. The depth and characterisation of Peter Garrison comes far too late to really be of any interest and while Douglas does a reasonable job in the role he was never really going to be helped much by the character itself. His onscreen relationship with Sutherland isn't explored enough in the opening scenes and then to suddenly believe their characters had been good friends seemed too unbelievable. It needed more development and instead was condensed into about 2 minutes that still left you wondering what was going on.

Opposite him they seem to have tried far too hard to turn Kiefer Sutherland's character Breckinridge into his alter ego Jack Bauer. It seemed that both the director and writer tried to pull in the 24 fans by making his character seem similar, but despite having Sutherland in the role it fails miserably and puts another nail in the coffin of this mediocre movie. The rest of the cast are equally let down by the writing and with a cast that included Eva Longoria Parker and Kim Basinger alongside the two leads it felt like a massively missed opportunity.

There are hints of a decent film within the remains of this movie. The end sequences work really well and had the rest of the film followed the endings style it would have worked much better. At 1 hour 50 minutes long, you lose interest and much of the will to watch before the hour is up. In fact it's only the fact that my girlfriend is at work this afternoon that I kept watching. It's a reasonable film due to the ending but I certainly couldn't recommend watching it and if you're looking for another Sutherland role like 24 then avoid this like the plague.

Amazon: £4.98
Amazon Marketplace: £0.98
Certificate: 12 

...less