The Sentinel

Ever have one of those movies where you're the only one who knows it exists? The Sentinel is that movie for me. The movie came out in 2006 at the height of the popularity of the show 24. And if you haven't already deduced, I happen to love 24. Its one of my favorite television shows and its so easy to just binge watch.

So when a movie came out with Kiefer Sutherland in the Secret Service looking for a mole int he service, this was a movie I absolutely needed to see. Not to mention that I find stories about the Secret Service to be incredibly interesting ones because its an interesting topic.

The Sentinel actually follows the story of Peter Garrison (played by Michael Douglas) a secret service agent assigned to protect the First Lady (played by Kim Basinger). The two of them actually become romantically involved and someone discovers the affair.

Along with that, one of Garrison's colleagues brings up the possibility of a hit against the President of the United States. From there, an investigation starts that begins implicating him in a conspiracy to assassinate the President.

While Garrison is on the run, an old friend, David Breckinridge (Sutherland) and a protege of his, Jill Marin (Played by Eva Longoria) are on his trail.

There's not a lot more to talk about plot-wise without giving away anything on the plot. The interesting part of this movie is all the intricacies of the Secret Service that the movie educates the audience on.

An example of this is the fact that while most police officers are trained to draw their weapon and take it off safety in two motions, Secret Service agents are trained to do it in one motion. If they use their weapon they intend to use it. The movie is a little bit more of a educational video on the secret service than a really in depth movie.

That being said, it is a fun one. The good parts about it are the action scenes, the conspiracy element of it, and the acting talent that is in the movie. Douglas is great, of course I'm going to love Sutherland. Longoria even does a pretty good job.

The problems with the movie mainly lie in the details. There's a couple elements of the movie that are just under developed and under played. There isn't much of an explanation as to why these guys want to kill the President. In fact, the people behind the conspiracy are really nameless people in the end. Its not totally clear why they want to kill the President, they just do. Its more focused on Michael Douglas clearing his name.

And that was another thing, from the very beginning, we're pretty sure Michael Douglas is innocent. When this movie first came out, I thought it was going to be unclear whether or not Michael Douglas is actually the mole or not. But I'll let you know now, he's not.

If there was any doubt if Michael Douglas was the mole the entire time, I think the movie would have had a little bit more of an interesting plot and would have had the audience on their toes the entire time.

Another element is the lack of development of some of the characters. The President for example is one of the most under developed characters ever. He's just the President, he's not an extraordinarily interesting President, he's just the President and of course we don't want the President to die. But it also applies to some of the main characters. Breckinridge, Sutherland's character is an old friend of Douglas's but they were split over Sutherland's wife. There's a little bit where Sutherland thinks Douglas slept with his wife. But that's not important enough to carry on through the story so they kind of forget about it. Furthermore, Sutherland's character is only known for being someone who follows all the evidence down to a logical conclusion. Beyond that, he's just a Secret Service Agent. Nothing too complex. Even Douglas's character is really not that strong. He's initiating an affair the a married woman, believed to be cheating with Sutherland's wife, they don't develop him enough to prove all these things wrong or give us something more in depth so he's kind of a weak character.

That being said, this isn't a movie expected to be really high caliber. Its a fun conspiracy movie with a good cast and some good action. Watching this years later, I'm not disappointed with this movie as a simple action movie.

Could it be better? Yes it could. Does it necessarily need to be better? No. Its entertaining and worth a watch if you're interested in learning about the Secret Service, or you like any of the actors involved in this movie. I enjoyed it, maybe you will too.

So have you seen The Sentinel? What did you think of it? Are you a Michael Douglas fan? A Kiefer Sutherland fan? What are your thoughts? Leave comments and discussions below.

I'll leave you with this. I was going to leave this in my 24 Season 8 review but I need a video for this review so here it is. One of the new trailers for 24: Live Another Day. Enjoy!