The Sentinel

Plot synopsis:
Pete Garrison (Michael Douglas) is a Secret Service agent and one of the personal bodyguards for the First Lady of the United States Sarah Ballentine (Kim Basinger), with whom he is having an affair. He is one of the oldest and most experienced agents, having been involved in saving Ronald Reagan's life during the Reagan assassination attempt. A fellow agent and close friend, Charlie Merriweather (Clark Johnson), is later assassinated in front of his home. He gets wind from a trusted informant that the killing of Merriweather is related to an assassination plot against the President. The information provided by the informant revealed that a mole with access to the President's security detail had provided information to the assassins. The Secret Service Protective Intelligence Division, led by Garrison's former protégé and ex-friend David Breckinridge (Kiefer Sutherland) with rookie partner Jill Marin (Eva Longoria), is tasked with investigating the plot, which begins with polygraphs for every agent. Meanwhile, the mole discovers the discussion with the informant and Garrison's affair with the First Lady, and attempts to blackmail him by luring him to a coffee shop known to be a meeting point for Colombian gangs. Along with failing the polygraph test (for lying about the affair), Garrison becomes unwittingly framed by the mole and becomes the prime suspect for providing the information to the assassins.When Breckinridge confronts Garrison at his home and begins to interrogate him about his dealings with the plot, the source of the two's estrangement comes to light: Garrison supposedly had an affair with Breckinridges wife and caused the breakup of their marriage, which he denies. Garrison escapes capture and conducts an independent investigation of the assassination plot, while making brief contact with the First Lady to deny his involvement. He tries to contact the informant who gave him the tip, but finds that he has been killed. He briefly encounters Breckinridge while finding the informant, but Breckinridge refuses to kill him, despite giving other agents "shoot to kill" orders. Using his contacts with sympathetic agents and family members, he stumbles onto an apartment rented by one of the assassins, and finds information that the assassins are headed to Toronto to attack the president at the G8 summit. He tells Jill Marin of the discovery as he leaves but later finds that any incriminating evidence has been removed before she can arrive.Meanwhile, the First Lady discloses her affair with Garrison to Breckinridge, who catches up to Garrison in Toronto and tells him that he believes that Garrison is innocent. Together, they discover the identity of the assassins and the mole, senior agent William Montrose (Martin Donovan), who was never polygraphed. Montrose is in charge of directing security at the G8 summit. The leader of the assassins, a man known as the Handler (Ritchie Coster), tells Montrose to give him the President, to which Montrose refuses, not caring if he goes to prison for treason or if the Handler kills him. The Handler then states that should Montrose not cooperate, his children and wife will be killed, showing a photo of each of them, leaving Montrose with no choice. The Handler then says that all Montrose has to do is jam the communication radios and nothing more. He then leaves Montrose to make the sad decision as well as leaving him the photos, saying "You can keep those; I got doubles".Breckinridge and Garrison race to the summit, trying to whisk the President away to safety, with the assassins, dressed as RCMP ERT operators, trying to kill the President while the Handler, disguised as an RCMP officer, grabs the First Lady as a hostage. Several agents are killed, including Ed and Pamela. Montrose is killed by a fake ETF officer while in his last act of protecting the President, in spite of the threats against his family. Ultimately, Jill Marin and Breckinridge are able to successfully save the President while Garrison kills the Handler and saves the First Lady before the assassin leader can shoot anyone. However, Garrison is forced to take an early retirement due to the disclosure of the affair with the First Lady, who looks on sadly from her window as Garrison leaves the White House.

Tags: mystery, murder, dramatic, violence, action, suspenseful

Review:
For even after all the trouble he had with an adulterous romance in "Fatal Attraction," here he is in "The Sentinel" playing the role of Pete Garrison, a veteran secret service agent who's having an affair with none other than the First Lady of the United States.
Prime credit goes to Douglas, who after all these years, could clearly do these roles in his sleep, and to Keifer Sutherland, who plays a fellow agent with personal reasons for doubting Garrison's probity and loyalty to the institution.
Kim Basinger also does a fine job as the beautiful First Lady torn between duty towards her husband and the man she loves.You'll probably forget this movie the moment you walk out of the theater, but you should have a reasonably fun time while you're still in your seat..
Michael Douglas and Kiefer Sutherland go down a well worn road in a good movie that really should have gone straight to cable.
Michael Douglas is a secret service agent framed in a plot to kill the President of the US.
Kiefer Sutherland is the agent on his tail.Its not a bad movie its just been there done that with form over content film making.
There is no real tension because the actors are in roles they've played a dozen or so times before (Sutherland in 24 each week)so you can pretty much walk them through whats happening.Thats the problem here, its all been done before, better.The real question is: Do I really need to pay 10 bucks a head to see whats a essentially a big screen TV movie?
The veteran agent of the American secret service Pete Garrison (Michael Douglas) saved the life of president Ronald Reagan in the past and became a legend.
When his informer Walter discloses that there is a traitor in the secret service and a plot to kill the president, his former friend David Breckinridge (Kiefer Sutherland) and the chief of the secret service William Montrose (Martin Donovan) are in charge of the investigation and all the agents are submitted to a polygraph test.
He escapes, and in spite of chased by the secret service, he conducts his own investigation trying to find the responsible."The Sentinel" has a reasonable idea, of an agent failing in the polygraph test due to his love affair with the first lady, but the screenplay does not have any care for the characters.
The revelation of the true bad guy in conspiracy films normally elicits at least some form of surprise or intrigue; instead, in "The Sentinel" the character is far too obvious and the scene reveals a tangential and unexplained back story that should instead be much more central to the plot.The rush to cram details in every fleeting moment ruins this movie.
Eva Longoria appeared out of place, and the rest didn't seem very interesting.When the film finally ended, I was not completely displeased for I had seen a decent thriller that could have been much better, had the responsible parties taken a little more care to watch for the narrative gaps and given a little more care to character development.
In 'The Sentinel' Michael Douglas plays Pete Garrison, a veteran Secret Service agent.
He is being investigated by David Breckinridge (Kiefer Sutherland) when it comes to light that there may be a traitor in the Secret Service who might be involved in an assassination plot.
I cannot possibly think of one good thing about it, it's all so generic, so factory-made and so lazy assembled that it really only exists as an infomercial on how to make money from the unsuspecting, undeserving public.A plot about a Secret Service Agent planning to assassinate the Prez could well be entertaining.
As usual in a film like this the role of the Prez himself is nothing more than a tool, a token and is very badly written.Clark Johnson's, he who gave us the equally as pathetic SWAT back in 2003, mechanical direction lacks any kind of signature and has all the visual sophistication of a cheap TV-movie.
The movie even is a bit boring to watch to be honest and even though it's fast moving it still is a slow going movie because it often takes too long between sequences that any action or anything else good is happening.And then to think that people actually thought this was a serious Oscar contender before its release.
It's also the sort of movie that tries to make us believe that the secret service has all knowing and all seeing agents and all oh so well magically blend in with the crowed, despite big sunglasses and tough way of walking and looking around.
The fact that the story and approach of the movie is so far fetched makes this also a very unbelievable movie to watch.The movie focuses mainly on Michael Douglas and his view point, which means that the Kiefer Sutherland and Eva Longoria get pushed to the background.
The acting is torpid at best; Kiefer Sutherland phones in his worst impersonation of Jack Bauer, and Michael Douglas looks like he realizes he made a bad choice leaving Catherine Zeta-Jones for the duration it took to shoot this turkey.
This looks to have all the makings of a great film Top TV Series actors and Michael Douglas thrown in for good measure.
I thought that The sentinel was going to be a totally mediocre movie.When I finally saw it,I took a good surprise.The movie isn't great thing but it's fun and the action scenes are well done.This movie reminded me TV series like 24 or Alias.It's very similar to that series and it reminded me too,to the Wolfgang Petersen's thriller In the line of fire.If you're going to expect one of the most original and and one of the greatest thrillers in the history of movies,you will be disappointed.But if you go with moderate expectations,you will enjoy The sentinel.Rating:7.
whether this was revealed by whatever ghosts of a good script that happened to make it to the screen or a director who was generally more competent than outrightly annoying is something only to be ferreted out by further viewings I have no desire to go through.My final word on this thing is to simply not see this movie unless you like looking at a movie and thinking about how Brian DiPalma or Micheal Mann could have done it all much much better..
Instead the movie was slow, at times boring and far from what I expected to see from a movie with top actors like Michael Douglas and Kiefer Sutherland.
If you like the whole "secret service" and plots to "kill the president" then the movie might still be entertaining if you need to kill a couple of hours, but if you are looking for a good action movie, then don't waste your time on this one..
I hate movies -- or novels -- that do that, where it turns out that the DA prosecuting the innocent accused killer turns out to have done the murder himself, or the Vice President turns out to be the mole from the whatever enemy who poisons the President -- or in the case of the Sentinel, the head of the Secret Service turns out to be the Bad Guy about to kill the Prez.
I liked that Michael Douglas gets to act his age, and the plot doesn't let him get away with being a 60 year old superstud who can outrun the young agents under his charge.
And it was good to see Kim Basinger again, after all those years when she dropped out.If you ignore the plot holes and the revolting spoiler, you could really like the movie for what it shows you about the inner workings of the Secret Service, one of the all-time real success stories of government service.
It's unfortunate that none of the elements in the script distinguishes the movie from other action/crime/thriller movies.A short description: Pete Garrison (Michael Douglas), a secret service agent, is framed as the mole in an assassination attempt on the president.
Sutherland is a wrong choice either, because you feel as if you watch Jack Bauer and somehow, its character is one of the reasons which make the film like a TV movie, Eva Longoria Parker is a strange choice, of course she is too passive or straight in this movie, because she is a soap opera actress.
I was enthusiastic about this film being the '24' fan that I am and I knew it was going to be a bad movie but had to see it for myself.The story line is crud, Michael Douglas has done much better and there have been hundreds of films such as this in the past before.The only remotely interesting part of this film was the parts at the beginning when they go into detail as to how the President is protected.Kiefer Sutherland was probably paid a barrel load for this movie and it will certainly be one he wont be remembered for.Script - Poor Beginning - Average Ending - Poor.
Kiefer Sutherland(in full 24 form, Kim Basinger and Eva Longoria(why???) have nothing to do but to try and figure out how they all ended up in a movie this predictable.
See, Dave thinks that Pete had an affair with his wife, so he really doesn't mind investigating his former best friend for treason.That's when Pete makes a run for it, hiding from the law and the bad guys at the same time, desperately scrambling to find the truth, a la "The Fugitive." As you may have guessed, this film, directed by Clark Johnson, stars Michael Douglas as Pete Garrison and none other than the illustrious Keifer Sutherland as Dave Breckinridge.
kiefer Sutherland's character takes a back seat to Michael Douglas's character, who is impossible to like and even more impossible to feel sorry for.The action is sub-par, and the "big climax" that they spend the entire movie building to is a snooze.Bottom line.
In the end it is a bit disappointing because it gives up too soon and takes an all too familiar plot turn.The scenes with Douglas and Kiefer Sutherland barking at each other like two frat boys chasing the same girl are easily the highlights.
Michael Douglas, a veteran Secret Service agent who actually took a bullet on Reagan's failed assassination attempt, becomes the prime suspect due to a hidden affair he is having with the first lady (Kim Basinger).
The only other secret service thriller I can think of is "In the Line of Fire" with Clint Eastwood and this movie far surpasses it in feel and accuracy.
Well those days are back thanks to The Sentinel.Michael Douglas and Kiefer Sutherland unite friendly demographics and Eva Longoria and Kim Basinger provide solid eye candy throughout this well-oiled never-boring entertainment.
Douglas and Sutherland have plenty of on-screen time together and largely act like intelligent good-intentioned Secret Service agents hell-bent on protecting the presidency.There's plenty of story-line and a plot that just keeps unfolding and unfolding without getting too far out of control.
First of all, the performances are great (Michael Douglas, Kim Basinger, Kiefer Sutherland, and Eva Longoria.
Micheal Douglas, Keifer Sutherland, Kim Basinger, and the sexy Eva Longoria(she should do more films) all turn in credible performances.
It is especially interesting because its protagonist, Secret Service Agent Pete Garrison (Michael Douglas), is having an affair with First Lady Sarah Ballentine (Kim Bassinger).
The usual shiny black SUV's, drum rolling music, and international baddies make this a usual spy thriller with the added fillip of a fit, charismatic Douglas, ditto Bassinger, very ditto Eva Longoria as a new agent, and an underplaying Kiefer Sutherland as David Breckenridge, Garrison's former partner.
Kiefer Sutherland and an aging Michael Douglas costar in THE SENTINEL, a D.C.-based thriller about a plot to assassinate the president.
There is a mole in the Secret Service, someone is trying to assassinate the President, Agent Pete Garrison (Douglas) has been wrongly framed and must clear his name whilst simultaneously foiling the attempt on the leader of the free world's life.
Hiring Keifer Sutherland to play Jack Bauer, in a film where he isn't actually Jack Bauer is just plain confusing and Eva Longoria as a Secret Service Agent?
The Sentinel is not all bad, Michael Douglas convinces as the crinkly old Special Agent out to save his own hide, and Kim Basinger adds some much needed class as the First Lady.
There is a serious competition going on between: the main-character's relationship with the first lady, his feud with Keifer Sutherland's character, the secret plot to kill the President, the rookie agent played by Eva Longoria, and finally the question of which member of the Secret Service is a mole.
With the presidential plot lines, the search for a suspect and Kiefer Sutherland, it might appear like nothing less than "24: The Movie." However, that would be a grave insult to 24.
Kiefer Sutherland deserves better, as does Eva Longoria, who's role is basically to stand around and look pretty (which she does better on Desperate Housewives).If you want a good film with a similar plot line, go see IN THE LINE OF FIRE or go rent the second season of 24.
At the helm is Michael Douglas gives a fair performance as Pete, a veteran in the Secret service, and even though he handles the role quite well, there is still one big factor working against him  he is way too old!
In a movie which depends mostly upon action scenes, it isn't logical to cast Michael Douglas in a role which is given lots of importance.
The cast was breath-taking: Michael Douglas, Kiefer Sutherland, Eva Longoria, Kim Basinger.
Michael Douglas is the agent under fire who spends nearly the entire film running for his life while trying to piece together clues about a possible hit on the President.
Kiefer Sutherland, Kim Basinger, Eva Longoria and Martin Donovan are among the big cast names and the movie delivers fine action scenes and the usual intrigue and tight spots.
When the head of the President's protection detail (Michael Douglas) is accused is being a mole, lead investigator Dave Breckenridge (Kiefer Sutherland) and his rookie partner (Eva Longoria) are called in to investigate.The simple reason this film was made was as a vehicle for the rising stars of Sutherland (who pretty much plays Jack Bauer of 24 in this film) and Longeria (sex symbol from Desperate Housewives trying to branch into more serious fare).
The Sentinel is a rehash of several better films, like "In The Line Of Fire" this does not have any originality in it, and watching Michael Douglas run around, felt kinda silly in my opinion.
Secret Service veteran Michael Douglas (as Pete Garrison) once helped save President Ronald Reagan's life, during a 1981 assassination attempt.
The 2006 film "The Sentinel," which stars Michael Douglas, Kiefer Sutherland and Kim Basinger is a fair movie that makes a decent rental.
It's the story of a Secret Service man who is framed for an assassination attempt on the President (David Rasche) and sets out to find out who's framing him while Sutherland is after him.Unfortunately, the casting gave away one of the subplots, and as to whom was framing Douglas, that was apparent as well.What could have been a really excellent thriller is spoiled by a clumsy script that lets the viewer down at the end of the film.Eva Longoria has a supporting role which was basically thrown in there for no apparent reason.Kim Basinger makes a lovely first lady and Rasche, who has little to do, is effective as the President.
The rivalries within the Secret Service between agents played by Michael Douglas and Kiefer Sutherland also could have provided the material for a pretty good film.
You know you are watching a bad film when you are spending more time trying to spot Michael Douglas's cosmetic surgery scars than you are following the plot..
Like the Clint Eastwood vehicle "In the Line of Fire" from the nineties, "The Sentinel" is a crime thriller about a veteran Secret Service bodyguard who has to foil a plot to assassinate the President of the United States.
There is a decent performance from Kiefer Sutherland as Garrison's colleague David Breckinridge, but Eva Longoria as another colleague has little to do except to serve as the film's Official Eye Candy.
Pete Garrison (Michael Douglas) is a secret service agent assigned to protect the First Lady.
Pete Garrison (Michael Douglas) was the American secret service agent who once saved the life of president Ronald Reagan.
sorry I mean Kiefer Sutherland, Michael Douglas, the lovely Eva Longoria and a host of other recognizable faces including Kim Basinger(as the 1st lady no less) and Martin Donovan.
A good cast including Hollywood stars like Michael Douglas and Kim Basinger and TV hots Kiefer Sutherland (at only earplugs difference from his role in the '24' series) and Eva Longoria does a fair job, but overall the action is too much on the expected side, the suspense is almost completely absent, and no interesting character development balances all these..
This time, the conspiracy is inside the Secret Service, as an agent wants to assassinate the President and frame another agent (Michael Douglas) for it.
The action was fairly tense, and the cast was excellent (Douglas, Kiefer Sutherland, Eva Longoria, Kim Basinger), but the drawback was that it followed a formula.
Keifer Sutherland and Eva Longoria, two TV stars jumping to the big screen, are the leads here, but the film quickly shifts focus to veteran agent Michael Douglas, who turns into the film's central character and protagonist.
The result is terrible and loaded with plot holes.Michael Douglas stars as Pete Garrison, a Secret Service agent who "took one" for Reagan during the attempt on his life.
I thought it was an excellent political thriller about something that's never happened before - a Secret Service agent going bad and involved in an assassination plot.