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Sentinal Review

Saw on 4/23/2006
Release Date: April 21st, 2006 (wide)

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some intense action violence and a scene of sensuality.

Distributors: 20th Century Fox Distribution

Synopsis
A man who has devoted himself to serving the leader of the free world is accused of plotting against him in this thriller. Pete Garrison (Michael Douglas) is a veteran Secret Service agent who has had a long and distinguished career helping protect the president of the United States. David Breckinridge (Kiefer Sutherland) is a fellow Secret Service agent who learned most of what he knows from Garrison and holds him in great respect. When intelligence data suggests that there is a mole within the Secret Service who is part of a plot to assassinate President Ballentine (David Rasche), Garrison launches an investigation to ferret out the rogue agent, and asks Breckinridge to go over the evidence with a fine-toothed comb. Breckinridge is shocked when the clues point to Garrison as the traitor within the Secret Service, but his sense of duty compels him to see that his former mentor is placed under arrest. Garrison eludes his captors and struggles to prove his innocence while tracking down the real conspirator and eluding the agents who were once his colleagues. As Breckinridge leads the search for Garrison, another ranking agent, Jill Marin (Eva Longoria) plays devil's advocate, convinced that Garrison couldn't possibly be the rat in the house. The Sentinel also co-stars Kim Basinger as the First Lady. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Cast
Michael Douglas - Pete Garrison
Kiefer Sutherland - David Breckinridge
Eva Longoria - Jill Maren
Martin Donovan - William Montrose
David Rasche - President Ballentine
Kim Basinger - Sarah Ballentine

Crew
Clark Johnson -Director
Arnon Milchan -Producer
Marcy Drogin -Producer
Michael Douglas -Producer
George Nolfi Co-producer, Screenwriter
Christophe Beck Composer (Music Score)
Gabriel Beristain Cinematographer
Adam Krentzman Executive Producer
Bill Carraro Executive Producer
Gerald Petievich Book Author
Ellen Mirojnick Costume Designer
Cindy Mollo Editor
Evyen Klean Musical Direction/Supervision
Andrew McAlpine Production Designer

Dave's Revew:
Acting:
Michael: 73 (Better writing could have taken this to a 88-93)
Kiefer: 68 (Poor writing and editing made it difficult to show his talent)
Eva: 50 (Almost forgetable, but not bad)
Martin Donovan: 45 (forgetable, but respectable)
David Rasche: 45 (forgetable, but respectable)
Kim Basinger: 45 (forgetable, but respectable)

Directing: 40 (Doesn't have a superior sense of plot and character development- but don't know if this is him or the negative influence of budget and producers)
Producers: 35 With so many producers and even the screenwriter being a co-producer, I can't see that their responsibility to uphold the big picture view was all that adequate.
Writing: 55 (Poorly crafted adaptation of the book and only moderately gives us a smell of the inside world of the Secret Service with minimal action at the end.)

Overall: 51

Note: I rate '24', the TV show at 83.

My Review:
As a fan of the ever popular TV show '24', I was really looking forward to this movie. It had the potential to be a signficant movie with plot development and rare insights into the Secret Service. I was drawn to this movie because I thought this was a chance for Kiefer to take his '24' work to another level with crafty plot work. Instead, we're stuck with a new partner like Chase from the first couple of years of '24' in Eva and a familiar '24' plot ploy of having a mole in the brotherhood in Montrose.
I was pleasantly surprised to see just how active and non-stop pressure filled are these Secret Service jobs. The chatter on the radios was amazing, but more importantly, the amount of communication and procedure that is built into these guys work is amazing. These guys are super stars. So when we find that they are every bit as human and prone to carelesness, I was really let down. Not because of these failures, but because of them all happening at once and because they seemed completely out of control.

The movie shattered the visage of the Secret Service and there wasn't all that much plot development on the showing of heartache from those within the agency and from the white house itself on the impact of the situation. At best, we get two 15 seconds scenes where the President asks for Classified status of the situation and to state the impact of having the agency on its knees after more than 100+ years of clean history. This movie had every bit of impact on the reputation of the Secret Service, as it did on the assasination plot to kill the president. Perhaps, this was a case of too many fronts not dealt with well by the writers, producers and director?

This movie had the makings of a careful plot reveal as good as 'All the President's Men' had when Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman walk us through a major breach in security protocols and scandal.

As I researched the movie a bit, I came to find that the director had only one other movie to his credit with was S.W.A.T.. That movie was forgetable as well. Clark Johnson, you're definitely not a B movie director. Which says good things about you. I thought that after S.W.A.T., Clark would have enough experience by now to not be forced into Rookie Movie director habits to compromise on Plot, character development, and writing. For now, he's one of poorest action movie director list as far as I'm concernced. I just can't help wonder what a director like Quentin Tarantino or Ang Lee could have done with this movie.

The actors in this movie had severe handicaps. The substandard script, excessive TV quality scene editing and top heavy producer monkeying dropped every actor's rating by at least 10-13 points.

I'm confused what the real purpose of the movie was other than to just make money.

Acting Moments that showed me the actor abilities or lack of.

Eva Longoria
When Jill Maren played by Eva Longoria couldn't shoot Pete Garrison because of her Rookie and Academy Instructor relationship, I was let down, but understood. Eva failed to show the struggle of her action not to shoot. This was her shining star moment and she was barely above average in it.

Kiefer Sutherland
Kiefer was only above average in the scene where Jill Maren and David 1st meet as trainee and mentor. Kiefer's scene where he plays an egotistical Ace is written poorly and is not acted all that memorably. It was like a scene that just had to be done. Kiefer had the opportunity to shine here... to create a charismatic presence that pervaded the rest of the movie, but came up short.

His other limit moment was when he is told by the 1st lady the true story of the Pete and her affair. Keifer had a lousy 'Keannu' stone faced reaction.

Kiefer's shining moment is when he has to shoot Pete. Although repetitive of his '24' experience, it was still superbly acted.

Michael Douglas
Michael's moment is when David is forced to shoot him. Michael and Kiefer clearly fed off of each other in this memorable scene.

The three biggest problems for me in this movie were:
1) Absolutely poor character/plot development when a major implication is revealed. Where were the 'Oh my God' and 'You're frickin' kidding me's' when it was thought that Pete Garrison was a traitor? What about when they and the moment the President realized it was Montrose? Why didn't the other agents in the staircase react with "shit! your kidding me!"?

2) Overly cliche or cheap plot tactics to move the movie along. When Pete Garrison is finally caught by David, Kiefer's character says "I know" to relay that he knows it was a setup all along. And with one tap on the shoulder, their buddy's again. What? At the end, the final assassin is a guy walking toward the President. There were 25 guys in the circle! Why didn't anyone notice him walking straight toward the President while the others were running and stutter stepping into place to create the perimeter security?

3) Not enough insights into the working of several plot segments and the use of the Secret Service Element to ignite a rather useful canvas to craft a potentially brilliant movie.