The Sentinel

The Sentinel
Directed by Clark Johnson
Screenplay by George Nolfi from the novel by Gerald Petievich
20th Century Fox

On paper, some movies look like pure gold. Kiefer Sutherland and Michael Douglas squaring off in a Fugitive-style thriller? Beautiful "Desperate Housewives" regular Eva Longoria in on the chase? Oh, so many twists and turns are sure to follow and bring us on a wild roller coaster ride all the way to the finish! Not so, unfortunately.

Pete Garrison (Douglas) is a Secret Service veteran, protecting the President (David Rasche) along with his top-notch team, led by William Montrose (Martin Donovan of Saved!). Garrison also does a good job taking care of the President's wife Sarah (Kim Basinger), if you know what I mean. Things get bad for Garrison when one of his team gets shot and killed, which brings in his former friend and FBI guy David Breckinridge (Sutherland) in on the case, who's got the hot, smart, and new trainee Jill Marin (Longoria) tagging along. While they try to figure out who killed the Secret Service guy, Garrison gets information about a plot to kill the President and that the threat is coming from within the Secret Service. Garrison also gets a package containing pictures of him canoodling with the President's wife. Very soon, Breckinridge's investigation focuses on Garrison, who needs to run around and find evidence and basically, look for that figurative one-armed man.

I picked out who ultimately was behind it all within the first few minutes. This comes from the usual "tells" that I wonder if some directors even recognize. This comes from the way the movie is edited and the work of the performer. But predictable isn't all bad if there's a kinetic narrative, which this doesn't have. So, we're left with a flat, predictable movie with a lot of wasted star power--I wondered what Eva Longoria was doing in this other than to look pretty, even though her character's pedigree is one of those sharp-as-tacks, tough-as-nails superwomen.

Again, on the surface, it looks like movie magic. Once we see what's inside, leaves much to be desired.