Sentinel

Sentinel
Sentinel

A self-destructive race has come through a dimensional gate and almost eliminated the entire world in 2155. Several people managed to survive, including miners who were hiding on the dark side of the moon. Years later, with technological advancements, three soldiers are trained and sent back to Earth for a mission. They aim to seek mankind’s resistance against the aliens and help end the occupation. Our three heroes soon meet face-to-face with the oppressive and all-controlling representative of the gate, the Sentinel, and its troops. Although the soldiers are extremely outnumbered, their objective is to accomplish their mission no matter the cost and take back Earth.

The Secret Service women and men, with all their motorcades, sharpshooters, and chic suit-and-sunglasses outfits, are quite inviting geographies for a thriller director. That’s probably what S.W.A.T.’s Clark Johnson had in mind when back in 2003 he left a focus on meatheads dressed in Kevlar and shifted his attention to the agents who are famed for their starch and President’s security.

For this story of a veteran agent who has been set up by a mole in the White House and is in turn pursued by his own fellow agents, Johnson cast a collection particularly designed to make anyone who enjoys thrillers gag. In one corner, as the wronged Service­man Pete Garrison, there’s Michael Douglas, coming back to the genre after five years break and demonstrating that no one is more skilled in playing ‘harassed man’ than him. In the other corner, as the man who has been given the task of tracking down Garrison, there’s 24’s Kiefer Sutherland, who has done so much of this stuff that he must have even carried his own curly earpiece. And to even the balance of testosterone, there is Kim Basinger as the First Lady who has been offered a handful of really top secret services from Garrison and Eva Longoria as a new agent.

Unfortunately for other thriller viewers and admirers of the actors, The Sentinel is a rather poor bit of cinematic work. After a cool start where Douglas is attending what seems like a pretty normal day at a very outrageous workplace, the boring story begins to move forward leading to a quick degradation of logic. For example, consider the series of deaths that appear as random threats throughout the first half of the movie and the reason for them have just been some weak attempt by Johnson to justify the bill for the night at the editing room. Or, much more absurd, the scene toward the end when the bad guys have been trying to kill the President\’s wife for ten minutes and already find her without protection.

With legitimate threats faced by America, fear is real; but when the time comes to unmask the villains, it seems like George ‘Timeline’ Nolfi had been holding on to it hoping it would someday catch the attention of Hollywood. Simply put; these are the kinds of Euro-baddies that one would find in the movies of early 90s Van Damme movies looking to hatch a master plan. This is not what one expects from a political thriller that came out after 9/11. This general template of character development starts all the way from him to the President who is depicted as an admirable leader even though he is oblivious to his wife’s infidelity – and Longoria’s rookie, who might as well be entirely deleted as she adds no value at all to the picture.

There are indeed some positives associated with actors that possess this level of talent. It is, however, still a big letdown. The appeal of a Douglasn Sutherland showdown is disappointing; the latter makes one aware that one can watch cleverer and more energetic action on television without cost.

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