Friday, September 08, 2006

THE SENTINEL - dull spy thriller

Watching the first season of 24 ruined TV for me. Every other drama, indeed all the following seasons of 24, seemed a pale imitation - unable to match the intensity and professionalism of the original. I now find that 24 has ruined a certain type of movie for me too. THE SENTINEL is a case in point. It's a well-cast, high-budget action movie cum thriller starring Michael Douglas, Kiefer Sutherland and Eva Lonfgoria as secret service agents on the US President's security detail. Douglas is being framed for an assassination attempt on the President's life and Longoria and Sutherland are in charge of bringing him in. The set-up has a lot of promise: topicality, CSI-style crime scenes, car chases, shoot-ups and big budget set pieces in the White House and Camp David. Problem is, it all seems like it's going through the motions. Nothing surprises you. It's not even entertaining. I figured out who the mole was in the first ten minutes on the basis that the actor was the only "name" in the supporting cast. The motives of the real killers are skated over. To paraphrase the report my old international relations tutor once gave about me: (the movie) "is like a glacier. It looks sleek on the surface but one crack reveals the gaping void beneath."

THE SENTINEL is on release in the US and most of Europe. It opens in Venezuela, Slovenia, Turkey, Serbia and Egypt in October.

No comments:

Post a Comment