Precise details can make a lot of baloney easier to swallow, and so it is with The Sentinel, an assassination plot that thickens with style.
Michael Douglas plays Pete Garrison, a secret service agent on duty so long that he took a bullet for former US president Ronald Reagan. Garrison is seemingly the last guy who could be accused of plotting to kill a US president, but that's the jam The Sentinel places him in, and it's a measure of the screenplay's effectiveness that we're not sure for a few minutes if he's innocent.
His chief accuser is fellow agent David Breckinridge (Kiefer Sutherland), who has a personal grudge against Garrison for an alleged marital indiscretion. Sex (and how to cover it up) is always an issue in Douglas' best roles, as it is here, since Garrison is having an affair with the first lady, Sarah Ballentine (Kim Basinger). Keeping their romance secret is how Garrison stumbles into this mess and plays a key role in its conclusion.
PHOTO COURTESY OF FOX
Right away, we know The Sentinel won't be entirely logical. Neither Garrison nor Ballentine would ever find themselves in this situation, and Breckinridge's trust of his colleague turns too quickly. However, director Clark Johnson displays so much attention to secret service mentality, small details such as surveillance and pursuit techniques, he enables viewers to buy into the falsehoods wrapped inside the reality. The Sentinel is slightly better than In the Line of Fire in that regard.
Unlike that consistently thrilling film, The Sentinel sags when the villains are revealed. Nobody on the wrong side has the scary flair of John Malkovich's assassin. No solid motive for killing the president is offered, not even insanity, despite occasional optical effects recalling familiar, unstable threats.
The chase is everything here, and screenwriter George Nolfi, working from Gerald Petievich's novel, spins a nail-nibbler.
Garrison's experience in the secret service keeps him one step ahead of his pursuers at every turn, resulting in several satisfying a-ha moments. Johnson may play a bit fast and loose with cellular telephone technology, but, again, the overall good sense pushes doubt aside.
It also helps that Nolfi doesn't allow cliches to intrude; when we see Eva Longoria (TV's Desperate Housewives) cast as a new agent, we expect her to become a love interest or a damsel in distress, and neither occurs. The movie keeps things together until the final few minutes, but by then we're sold on the story's possibilities.
The Sentinel is slickly produced, solidly acted and energetically edited by Cindy Mollo. It's standard material that doesn't quite follow standard operating procedure, and that makes a notable difference that a lot of other filmmakers could learn from.
The Sentinel
Directed by: Clark Johnson
Starring: Michael Douglas (Pete Garrison), Kiefer Sutherland (David Breckinridge), Eva Longoria (Jill Marin), Martin Donovan (William Montrose), Ritchie Coster (The Handler), Kim Basinger (first lady Sarah Ballentine)
Running time: 108 minutes
Taiwan Release: Today
On April 26, The Lancet published a letter from two doctors at Taichung-based China Medical University Hospital (CMUH) warning that “Taiwan’s Health Care System is on the Brink of Collapse.” The authors said that “Years of policy inaction and mismanagement of resources have led to the National Health Insurance system operating under unsustainable conditions.” The pushback was immediate. Errors in the paper were quickly identified and publicized, to discredit the authors (the hospital apologized). CNA reported that CMUH said the letter described Taiwan in 2021 as having 62 nurses per 10,000 people, when the correct number was 78 nurses per 10,000
As we live longer, our risk of cognitive impairment is increasing. How can we delay the onset of symptoms? Do we have to give up every indulgence or can small changes make a difference? We asked neurologists for tips on how to keep our brains healthy for life. TAKE CARE OF YOUR HEALTH “All of the sensible things that apply to bodily health apply to brain health,” says Suzanne O’Sullivan, a consultant in neurology at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London, and the author of The Age of Diagnosis. “When you’re 20, you can get away with absolute
When the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese forces 50 years ago this week, it prompted a mass exodus of some 2 million people — hundreds of thousands fleeing perilously on small boats across open water to escape the communist regime. Many ultimately settled in Southern California’s Orange County in an area now known as “Little Saigon,” not far from Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, where the first refugees were airlifted upon reaching the US. The diaspora now also has significant populations in Virginia, Texas and Washington state, as well as in countries including France and Australia.
May 5 to May 11 What started out as friction between Taiwanese students at Taichung First High School and a Japanese head cook escalated dramatically over the first two weeks of May 1927. It began on April 30 when the cook’s wife knew that lotus starch used in that night’s dinner had rat feces in it, but failed to inform staff until the meal was already prepared. The students believed that her silence was intentional, and filed a complaint. The school’s Japanese administrators sided with the cook’s family, dismissing the students as troublemakers and clamping down on their freedoms — with
RSS