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Sometimes I go to see a movie just to see the actors in situations I’ve never seen
them in before. Not because the story looked intriguing or I liked the director or
anything, just to see the actors doing something different. With The Sentinel, I
went in for this reason. The director’s (Clark Johnson) previously directed feature,
S.W.A.T., did not make me want to run out and see this one.
The Sentinel is about the U.S. Secret Service and a plot to kill the president. No
new ground there. The spark this time is that in the 200 years since the Secret
Service has been around, they have never had an agent betray the U.S.—until now.
There is a mole in the Secret Service, and everyone scrambles to find the mole and
uncover the plot to kill the president.
Michael Douglas does a great job, and the real fun in the movie is watching him do
some things he hasn’t done before. He plays the agent suspected of being the mole,
and he moves around like Harrison Ford did in The Fugitive. It’s not something we
haven’t seen from other actors; it’s just interesting to see it done by Michael
Douglas. He’s fun to watch and doesn’t disappoint.
Kiefer Sutherland, on the other hand, just plays Jack Bauer all over again, just as
a secret agent and not as ruthless as in 24. Eva Longoria is interesting as his
sidekick, but she doesn’t have too much to work with. The real problem with the film
lies with the film’s director. It appears to be a case of HandyCam death, where the
story gets lost in the wobbly camera work. The editing is really poorly done as
well, as several scenes seem to be out of place and cut abruptly to go to other
quick scenes without any real logic. Every once in a while, an image or a one-sentence
scene would pop up and my wife would turn to me and say, “What was that?”
My heart sank as I watched this as I realized that Clark Johnson has a hold of my
favorite literary character with his next film. He’s set to direct Killing Floor, a
Jack Reacher tale, and I’m really getting bummed out by this prospect because I love
that character and all of his novels. So if you were thinking of going to see this
movie as a good Michael Douglas thriller, rent The Game instead, as it’s a much better film. Otherwise, stay home and read Killing Floor by Lee Child.
