Nadine Salakov
I hadn't watched this flick for a long time and couldn't really remember it, i thought it was one of those standard decent thrillers, but watching it again had me prove myself wrong.This film is an hour and forty something minutes of running, chasing and people pointing guns at each other along with the clichéd "I was set up, so i have to go on the run and clear my name". The movie has some great talent, but the plot, directing, and editing is not very good, it's just something that we've seen too many times, so with a film that isn't all that at least give us a satisfying ending and have the First Lady divorce the President and leave with Michael Douglas's character, he says at one point in the film that he loves her, she does not really seem happy living that life in The White House, and the final end shot is Michael Douglas's character looking up at the White House top window and then he turns around and walks away/she looks out of the window at him and walks away from the window and that's that, Douglas's character is free and that's good, but him and the First Lady love each other and they cannot be together in the end...i guess that is just how things are sometimes. I wouldn't recommend this film if you want all things to play out well as i did.
FlashCallahan
Special Agent Pete Garrison is convinced that someone has managed to infiltrate the White House. When a White House Agent is murdered, Garrison is framed and blackmailed over an affair with the First lady. He is relieved of his duties, but Garrison won't stop in trying to prove his innocence, and save the life of the President. While attempting to uncover the person behind it all, he comes into confrontation with his protégé, Agent Breckinridge, whom is convinced that he had an affair with his wife.....It's a pretty sound premise, Douglas having relations with the First Lady, and then being framed for treason, but it wreaks of In The Line Of Fire, and the similarities to 24 cannot be helped, because Sutherland is playing nothing more than Jack Bauer in a suit.And this is where the film makes it's first mistake. With the roles reversed, this could have been 24: the movie, that was floating Hollywood for an age, and Douglas would have played Sutherland's in a Gordon Gekko type way.It's slick enough, the film looks good, and there are a few good set pieces, but there are some things that cannot get out of your head.For instance, when we first meet Longoria, she is metaphorically stalked by an agent who cannot do anything but creepily stare at her, and it really doesn't sit right in the film.So all in all, it's a pretty acceptable thriller, but just perfunctory narrative slightly tarnishes the outcome.
David Love
Pete Garrison (Michael Douglas) was the American secret service agent who once saved the life of president Ronald Reagan. He is now responsible for the security of the current American president Ballentine (David Rasche) and is also having an affair with first lady Sarah Ballentine, convincingly played by Kim Basinger.His informer Walter Xavier (Raynor Scheine) discloses that there is a traitor in the secret service and a plot to kill the president. Garrison's former friend but now competitor David Breckinridge (Kiefer Sutherland) accompanied by Jill Marin (Eva Longoria), launch an investigation. All the agents are submitted to a polygraph test, which is a bit inconvenient for Garrison, who is found to be untruthful because he is covering up his affair, and he is released from duties under suspicion that he is the traitor. He then follows the well worn path of doing his own investigations while trying to evade his former colleagues. Meanwhile, who is the real mole? So the plot is not bad, acting first rate, sound good, lighting good, camera-work a bit busy. I don't think there's a serious weak point in this film. I am irritated by the lead villain always having to be played by a British actor, but at least it provides them with work and here it's Ritchie Coaster who gets the job. There are plenty of worse films than this around, and it's great to see such excellent performances from the lead actors. I hadn't expected to like this as much as I did. Ultimately it's not Hitchcock, or even The Fugitive, but it's not far off.
Leofwine_draca
THE SENTINEL is one of those cookie-cutter thrillers that's already been made before. In this film's case, it's a virtual reprise of IN THE LINE OF DUTY, with Michael Douglas taking on the Eastwood role of the dedicated presidential bodyguard battling wits with an assassin.The film could almost write itself, and sadly it turns out to be an absolutely generic Hollywood outing. Douglas is as strong as ever in a 'wronged man' type role, but everything that happens - every sub-plot, every little twist and turn - is so familiar, so predictable, so well choreographed in advance - that the ensuing film is difficult to like.THE SENTINEL throws plenty of stuff into the mix in hopes to make it stick. The most blatant is an extraneous Eva Longoria, added in an attempt to sex things up. Next up is Kiefer Sutherland, straight off the set of 24 and playing a similarly dedicated character.There are a handful of decent action sequences but Clark Johnson (also responsible for the similarly generic S.W.A.T.) is a letdown as director and there just isn't enough in the way of verve or style to make this in the least bit memorable. At least VANTAGE POINT had more going for it with the attempts at multiple points of view...
AD
