With a knockout cast of Michael Douglas, Kiefer Sutherland, Eva Longoria , Kim Basinger and David Rasche, "The Sentinel" could have been a superlative movie. But it's not, though it's not disastrous, either. It is mostly strangely, jarringly uneven movie with a story that has been told before.

Douglas (who looks more like his father every day), plays Pete Garrison, a stand-up, loyal member of the Secret Service unit that guards President Ballentine (Rasche) and his wife, First Lady Sarah Balletine (Basinger). Breckinridge (Sutherland) was apparently good friends with Garrison until he began to suspect the latter of fooling around with his wife Cindy (Kristin Lehman), although this falling-out is not shown directly in the film but rather. That story unfolds slowly after rookie agent Jill Marin (Longoria) arrives at Breckinridge's office.

Shortly after her arrival, we discover that Garrison has indeed been having a very secret affair though not with Breckinridge's wife but rather, surprise, the First Lady. At the same time, it becomes clear that someone in the unit is a mole and is conspiring to kill the President. Suspicion begins to fall on Garrison very quickly, as Breckinridge, already angry at Garrison, turns on him and various bits of paperwork begin to point at him, as well. The members of the unit are ordered to take polygraph exams, which Garrison fails, though it's really because of his affair with the First Lady.

An undercover FBI agent who was watching a restaurant for drug kingpins instead sees Garrison sitting there for hours, adding to the layer of suspicion. Garrison, of course, won't defend himself by revealing his affair (how many times have we seen this theme?), but when agents arrive to search his home, he makes his escape so that he can hunt down the real mole and clear his name. And save the president.

Suffice it to say that Garrison manages to beat up some good and bad guys, finds his key confidential informant--who, oddly, knows a lot about the conspiracy, though we don't ever learn how or why-- murdered, discovers who the real mole is, saves the president and redeems himself with the Secret Service. That's really the whole story.

The problem is this: if an agent were being investigated for treason, which is the accusation, oddly, not attempted murder, I don't think that even the most respected agent in the country would be left to wander around his apartment while it is being searched. He'd be on the floor in handcuffs, I would hope. He wouldn't be able to flee the apartment and the neighborhood, steal a car, get to the home of his informant's mother, tap the phone line, race out to site where his informant has just been murdered, escape the dragnet, kill one of the real plotters, get into Canada, sneak into a police lab to check the bad guy's fingerprints and rush to the G-8 summit, through the hordes of hippies, and save the president. After which he retires, leaving the Firs Lady bereft of his company.


You see, there are some problems with this story, lots of them. You can suspend your belief to a certain extent. But Douglas really doesn't appear physically capable of some of these actions--I think I could beat him in a foot race if I tried, and I'm not fast. Some of those agents chasing him would want payback for his having slugged a couple of their colleagues. I think that if a missile had just taken down the helicopter that was supposed to be carrying the president, we'd see a lot more, shall we say, concern for the president's safety and I doubt he'd be going anywhere other than an underground bunker for a while. The Secret Service, having decided Garrison is their main suspect, wouldn't allow one agent to decide otherwise and allow him to roam around.

And Longoria. Geez, that woman must spend 10 hours a day with a trainer to keep up that body. But the form-fitting suits she wears would never cut it with a real law-enforcement type. No place to hid the gun, you know.

This not to say that the movie is a bomb. It has its moments. The idea of a mole in the White House is intriguing, even though it's been done before. We get beautiful shots of the countryside as Garrison tries to track down his mysterious informant and a look at some of the technology and human systems in place to protect the president.

But the movie just seems to be something the stars signed on to do to pick up a paycheck rather than a great story. And what's with the refrigerators? Twice, at least, refrigerator doors play roles, once as a weapon for Garrison as he escapes his apartment, another as a depository for weapons for the bad guys.


Recommended:
No