Tedious Sentinel All Drama No Action

     Prior to seeing The Sentinel, fans of the FOX television series 24 may feel as though the new film is just a big screen version of the show less the infamous ticking clock. The plots are similar, both star Kiefer Sutherland and both feature a little extra love-drama to reel in the female viewers. However, the two are polar opposites in that 24 specializes in surprises at every turn while The Sentinel places all of its cards on the table within the first few minutes. The latter technique eliminates any thought required from the audience and fails to dredge up any true suspense.

     Such is the dilemma in The Sentinel, which is constantly bogged down with tedious scenes involving characters telling each other what the audience already knows and then explaining their actions with very common-sense rationale. The fact that only bits and pieces about these people’s lives are revealed doesn’t help matters, either, making each of them feel more like players in a game than characters in a narrative. We are not given the opportunity to see these people in anything but their roles of friends, lovers, cheaters and secret service agents thus are unable to develop any feelings but superficial emotions toward them.

     While The Sentinel appears to adapt the plot of a missing season of 24, the roles are changed around. Michael Douglas plays the Jack Bauer type role of Pete Garrison, an agent of the secret service who took a bullet in the assassination attempt of Ronald Reagan in 1981. Garrison is having an affair with the first lady Sarah Ballentine, played by Kim Bassinger, and this secret relationship ends up the subject of blackmail against Garrison when he is framed for the murder of a White House agent. Garrison is soon suspected of being involved in an assassination plot against the president when he fails a lie detector test as a result of keeping his affair with the president’s wife a secret.

     Enter the real Jack Bauer, Sutherland, who plays secret service agent David Breckinridge. Breckinridge and Garrison are former friends but their relationship came to a screeching halt when Garrison had, you guessed it, an affair with Breckinridge’s wife. Breckinridge and his new trainee Jill Marin, played by Eva Longoria, track Garrison who has fled in search of the truth behind the assassination plot. This leads to several confrontations between to two former pals and eventually a desperate last resort to save the president.

     It may sound as though The Sentinel is packed with action but there are very few enticing scenes in reality. The majority of the film features discussions about the characters’ positions in their lives and debates defending their actions. It takes the movie, which is just over an hour and a half, over thirty minutes to really pick up pace. Moviegoers holding out hope for the inevitable chase will be appeased for only a short period of time. There are a few scenes involving Garrison trying to evade Breckinridge but they are clichéd and hardly very thrilling.

     Speaking of thrills, The Sentinel’s extreme lack of them places the motion picture exclusively in the drama genre. The movie is neither exciting nor contemplative enough to be a thriller. It wouldn’t be fair to call it predictable since the movie reveals all of the would-be secrets very clearly from the get-go. Therefore, being handfed all of the information, the audience can do nothing more but sit back and watch as the other characters discover the secrets.

     The only redeeming quality of The Sentinel is its cast. You could not ask for two more appropriate leading men than Sutherland and Douglas who are terrific actors and make the most out of their roles here, especially during their confrontations. Bassinger fits the first lady bill rather well and, while Longoria’s character isn’t given much to do, she plays her nicely and very differently from her role on television’s Desperate Housewives.

     Which, along with 24, is far more worth your time than The Sentinel.