Two Secret Service agents who used to be best friends are tied to a failed assassination attempt on the President. Based on flimsy evidence, one gets accused of being in a plot to kill the President and he runs, in an attempt to unravel the plot on his own. You begin to think of the television series 24 and The Fugitive.
Kiefer Sutherland is the hotshot investigator agent while Michael Douglas is the accused agent who is also having an unlikely affair with... Also stars Kim Basinger as the First Lady and Eva Longoria a rookie agent.
The story is built on weak premise, even though the book it is based on was written by a former Secret Service agent. You don't get a strong sense of the reasons to kill the President and there's not enough "gotcha" when they figure out who the mole is.
This could have been a delicious thriller but instead it's half-baked Hollywood crap. In the close-ups, Douglas looks every bit his 62 years, which seems too old for an agent. Basinger looks stunning at age 53 but she isn't given much of a role. She's also rumoured to be interested in joining 24. Longoria, 21, doesn't put in a memorable performance.
The Sentinel lacks the cleverness and pure adrenalin rush of 24 and if this was an attempt to piggyback on the show's popularity, it has backfired big time. The best part of this film was seeing the trailer for the Viking epic Pathfinder.
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