The Sentinel
Despite the previews with Kiefer Sutherland pointing a gun and screaming hoarsely and intensely, this is not a thinly veiled movie of the TV series 24. Well, it reminds me of when 24 was really great, but it’s not Jack Bauer redux. Michael Douglas (demoted from American President to a Secret Service agent) is the star of this movie, and don’t you forget it. The film itself is actually much better than I ever expected it to be. It’s about adultery and enemies and traitors and the actual job of being a Secret Service agent, and that’s not including the actual plot!
The movie starts out slow but holds your interest with efficient and well-edited exposition. We don’t need to spend a lot of time but we still get enough information that when the action starts, we’re not weighed down with too much backstory or motivation, but we have enough to care. Gabriel Beristain’s camera work has a voyeuristic feel - are we, the audience, in the point of view of a character spying on the action, or is it just a camera style? We don’t know most of the time as we’re watching, so it lends a layer of “who knows what?” mystery that is absent from the script (it seems). For me, this made the film much more interesting.
The plot and action is earnest and everyone really seems to have their heart in it, even though they don’t seem to necessarily know why; they have utter blind faith in what they are supposed to do and they give it their all. It’s quite nice to be given so much when I expect so little. Douglas’ character is a master at what he does, and that is always pleasurable to watch.
However, what you should never do if you want your movie to avoid rampant predictability, is to cast the hinge character with someone as transparently “pretending to be what he’s not.” I don’t want to name the actor, in case he doesn’t have the same effect on you, but it didn’t take me long to determine the “bad guy” just based on the choice of actors, and an hour later I was proven right.. Come on, folks. (No disrespect to Pastor Skip.)
The Sentinel will hold your interest, it will entertain you, not insult you, and it is actually quite different than many movies being made today (but not so much different from a lot of TV being made today, but why quibble). Looking at director Clark Johnson’s filmography, he has a lot of acting experience and even more television experience overall, so it’s not surprising that this silver screen tale benefits from the efficiency of small screen storytelling. Unfortunately, it does retain a little of the small screen shallowness that is necessary to maintain a series over weeks and weeks, but without that luxury of time. Still, check it out.
MPAA Rating PG-13
Release date 4/21/06
Time in minutes 108
Director Clark Johnson
Studio 20th Century Fox
