All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Average User Score: 7 (61 sources)

Submit Movie Review

Review this film

Tell the world what you think of The Sentinel

Your Score:

reset score

Write Your Review:
When writing your review, remember to keep the language clean.

Submit Review Cancel

Fwirrel

-1

Agree (0)

Disagree (1)

I love Michael Douglas and Kiefer Sutherland, but I didn't really like this movie. The story was cliched and has been done many times before. There were still interesting characters and good action, but not a movie I would get excited to see again.

Report Abuse

Posted sep 28, 2008 5:52 am pt

mntnbkr

-1

Agree (0)

Disagree (1)

Sure, it is a little bit of the same old, same old but so what?!? The movie has Michael Douglas, Keifer Sutherland and Eva Longoria in it, the acting is top notch and the story, while a little typical, is done very well and has nice little...
[+] Read Full Review

Sure, it is a little bit of the same old, same old but so what?!? The movie has Michael Douglas, Keifer Sutherland and Eva Longoria in it, the acting is top notch and the story, while a little typical, is done very well and has nice little additions and details. It was a suspense-drama type of movie so that action needn't be spectacular. I don't think the affair could ever happen so that part was a little far fetched but everything else seemed realistic and kept me entertained throughout the whole movie. A bargain-bin buy for sure.

[-] Minimize Review

Report Abuse

Posted jul 5, 2007 12:54 am pt

viveckvivu

-1

Agree (0)

Disagree (1)

It was a good movie, not so great. The action scenes were not that great too. The story was plain and I think very its very common in many movies. Like getting framed and all. But still it was good to see.

Report Abuse

Posted may 29, 2007 1:03 pm pt

saxa246

-1

Agree (1)

Disagree (1)

Not so bad but not good either. Only watch if you are a fan of the actors, Kiefer Sutherland for me, otherwise don`t waste your time.

Report Abuse

Posted may 10, 2007 4:24 am pt

amauriel

-1

Agree (1)

Disagree (1)

I am going to rate this movie relatively high because I loved all the actors in it. The story was a tad slow and suspect, but it was a fun story nonetheless. Cheers to Kiefer Sutherland for another great job. Yeah, he was basically Jack Bauer ,...
[+] Read Full Review

I am going to rate this movie relatively high because I loved all the actors in it. The story was a tad slow and suspect, but it was a fun story nonetheless. Cheers to Kiefer Sutherland for another great job. Yeah, he was basically Jack Bauer , but so what.

[-] Minimize Review

Report Abuse

Posted mar 10, 2007 9:44 am pt

sounddude

-1

Agree (2)

Disagree (2)

Wow! Put together a dynamite cast, about the country's most celebrated law enforcement agency, through in a plot to kill the President of the United States with the killer a mole in the Secret Service, add to that beautiful cinematography, a...
[+] Read Full Review

Wow! Put together a dynamite cast, about the country's most celebrated law enforcement agency, through in a plot to kill the President of the United States with the killer a mole in the Secret Service, add to that beautiful cinematography, a moving musical score and gorgeous actresses like Kim Basinger and Eva Longoria and you have one fabulous movie, right?

Well, not really. All of the above is true. "The Sentinel" was photographed wonderfully. The cinematography is stunning in places. Both Douglas and Sullivan are engaging in their roles and the supporting cast is top notch. The music score is chilling and exciting all the way through, and the plot, though it may seem familiar to some, is intriguing because we've not considered there being a traitor from within the ranks of the Secret Service.

So why is this movie not a run away hit? One reason. The screenplay. It's weak. We've seen it all before. Everything else is great and the screenplay just doesn't make it. George Nolfi wrote the script and co-produced the movie and it just doesn't work. The directing was adequate and even good in most of the film. But the story just doesn't develope as the movie goes along. We don't "feel" anything for the characters. We aren't emotionally involved with them. We just don't care. And that's because of the screenplay.

What the viewer needed from this film is to connect, to empathize with the characters. It doesn't happen here. All the other elements are there.

After viewing the wide screen DVD, I watched the other features on the disc. In viewing the deleted scenes, I saw some of the reason this movie didn't work. They deleted some of the vary scenes that would help it communicate feelings to the audience. Scenes that helped explain why the characters acted the way they did were cut. Scenes that gave insight into why were deleted, including scenes about the aftermath. Too bad. It would have gone a long way to improving the movie overall.

What the DVD does have are two good short films about the making of the movie and the Secret Service. Those two videos are worth the rental. It tried the commentary and it was dry I stopped.

"The Sentinel" is an okay film when it should have been a great film. But it still makes a good home popcorn eater!

[-] Minimize Review

Report Abuse

Posted feb 26, 2007 5:48 am pt

John666666666

-1

Agree (1)

Disagree (2)

You have all these good actors in a terrible movie. The plots has been done a hundred times over. The affair between the presidents wife and Michale Douglas was ridiculous, I mean come one is our government really that inept that they couldn't...
[+] Read Full Review

You have all these good actors in a terrible movie. The plots has been done a hundred times over. The affair between the presidents wife and Michale Douglas was ridiculous, I mean come one is our government really that inept that they couldn't figure that out. Also I knew from the very beginning that the traitor wasn't going to be Michale Douglas, Kiefer Sutherland, Eva Longoria, or Kim Kim Basinger so there was no drama. What would have been great was if they did kill of the president and one of those four above made it happen, no that would have surprised me. Your better of watching the bad tv show 24 to get more drama, hell I bet Kiefer Sutherland wished you'd forget he was ever in this movie.

[-] Minimize Review

Report Abuse

Posted feb 25, 2007 5:42 am pt

NoOneIsAlone

-1

Agree (3)

Disagree (2)

Not quite sure why people did not like this movie, but I must say that it was very, very good. I don't understand the critics, the best stories that we have on the year are the one that they criticize the most and other ones, they just let them...
[+] Read Full Review

Not quite sure why people did not like this movie, but I must say that it was very, very good. I don't understand the critics, the best stories that we have on the year are the one that they criticize the most and other ones, they just let them past, I don't think think this movie deserves a 48 of rating. It was an awesome movie, great plot and great concept too!

[-] Minimize Review

Report Abuse

Posted feb 17, 2007 12:12 am pt

CTUBauer24

-1

Agree (3)

Disagree (2)

This is one good movie you get to see the life of the secert service the storyline is a good one it is one of Sutherlands better movies.

Report Abuse

Posted jan 30, 2007 12:14 pm pt

jbeauchamp17

-1

Agree (2)

Disagree (1)

Forgettable, though intriguing, action flick. The main problem with this film is that we've seen it all before, and give it a few months and it simply blends in with the multitude of similar films, though there is a lot to like about the film....
[+] Read Full Review

Forgettable, though intriguing, action flick. The main problem with this film is that we've seen it all before, and give it a few months and it simply blends in with the multitude of similar films, though there is a lot to like about the film. It is intriguing, it takes many twists and turns, the acting is solid and the pace is fast. But I ask you this, in 12 months will you really remember this film?

[-] Minimize Review

Report Abuse

Posted dec 25, 2006 10:28 am pt

• [+] Christian Science Monitor
  
  75
  Michael Douglas plays US Secret Service agent Pete Garrison, and his jaw has never seemed tighter.

  by Peter Rainer | Read Full Review »
• [+] Chicago Sun-Times
  
  75
  It is encouraging that well-crafted thrillers are still being made about characters who have dialogue, identities, motives and clean shirts.

  by Roger Ebert | Read Full Review »
• [+] New York Daily News
  
  75
  Implausible yet enjoyably diverting thriller.

  by Jami Bernard | Read Full Review »
• [+] San Francisco Chronicle
  
  75
  A well-constructed and genuinely tense thriller.

  by Mick LaSalle | Read Full Review »
• [+] Los Angeles Times
  
  70
  An unassuming thriller, a nifty piece of genre filmmaking without frills or self-importance. It's a throwback, if you will, to the days of B pictures, when formula movies were made with a maximum of skill and a minimum of pretense.

  by Kenneth Turan | Read Full Review »
• [+] USA Today
  
  63
  Director Clark Johnson has an energetic style of filmmaking and a facile way with stunts and chase sequences. The result is a fairly stylish action thriller. We've seen plenty of suspense films in which a seemingly good guy is framed, so it helps when a director can pull off a few cinematic tricks to keep audiences on their toes.

  by Claudia Puig | Read Full Review »
• [+] ReelViews
  
  63
  Director Clark Johnson and screenwriter George Nolfi (adapting the novel by Gerald Petievich) do an excellent job of setting things up and getting the story underway. Unfortunately, some of their hard work is undone during the movie's final third.

  by James Berardinelli | Read Full Review »
• [+] Premiere
  
  63
  Ultimately all of the ado about men in shades and dark suits running around shooting and shouting at each other comes to a satisfying, if predictable, conclusion.

  by Jessica Letkemann | Read Full Review »
• [+] The Hollywood Reporter
  
  60
  A slick enough thriller about a presidential assassination attempt. It is also a rather mechanical, soulless affair that avoids politics or anything else that might clearly define who these characters are and why we should care.

  by Kirk Honeycutt | Read Full Review »
• [+] Seattle Post-Intelligencer
  
  58
  No, it's not the big screen version of "24." For one thing, Sutherland is in the wrong role.

  by Sean Axmaker | Read Full Review »
• [+] Baltimore Sun
  
  58
  The Sentinel moves quickly and never becomes a bore. It does become something of a cartoon, though, which proves a major letdown for a movie that aims for something far more intelligent.

  by Chris Kaltenbach | Read Full Review »
• [+] Portland Oregonian
  
  58
  We have reached a point in history when an ordinary TV show is often as good as or even better than an ordinary movie. And movies don't come much more ordinary than The Sentinel.

  by Shawn Levy | Read Full Review »
• [+] The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
  
  50
  A contrived and tepid thriller that insists on wanting to interest us in its main plot -- the usual nefarious plan to assassinate the leader of the free world.

  by Rick Groen | Read Full Review »
• [+] TV Guide
  
  50
  Douglas and Sutherland do crackling hostility with devilish glee, and the fireworks are nothing if not entertaining.

  by Maitland McDonagh | Read Full Review »
• [+] Boston Globe
  
  50
  The Sentinel isn't an entire season of ''24" smushed into a bland two hours of movie? Does Kiefer Sutherland know?

  by Wesley Morris | Read Full Review »