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.

HARSH TIMES - conventional LA crime drama

HARSH TIMES is a pretty disappointing movie. I had high expectations because it is written and directed by David Ayer, who also penned the spectacular TRAINING DAY. TRAINING DAY captured life in the rougher parts of LA with a seeming authenticiy that is rare and gave Denzel Washington a chance to play against type and shine. My expectations were also boosted by the fact that HARSH TIMES stars Christian Bale - an actor who seems to have a talent for picking interesting roles in challenging films.

But, to my surprise, HARSH TIMES turns out to be an incredibly conventional movie. Christian Bale plays to type as a psychotic Gulf War veteran trying to land a job with the LAPD. Burned for being too whacko even for the LAPD, Bale ends up being picked up by the Department of Homeland Security. Apparently, they will be accepting of his, 'I'm a soldier of the apocalypse, man!' attitude and some of the most darkly funny material in the film comes from this segment of the movie. I particularly liked the scene where Bale injects drug masking agents into his member with a turkey baster.

Naturally, the pyschotic veteran gets a more grounded but pussy-whipped best friend, played by Freddie Rodriguez. As in all buddy movies of this type, the Rodriguez character wants to sort out his life and get a job, but is driven from the path of righteousness by his best friend's whining. It was like watching ROUNDERS all over again. Lucky Freddie gets Desperate Housewife, Eva Longoria, as his squeeze. She does well with a very stereo-typed character - she seems to exist solely to hurl clever one-line insults at the Bale character. Stuff like, "You're crazy and you're dangerous and my biggest nightmare is you with a badge!" How many times have we heard that before in cheap cop dramas.

While HARSH TIMES contains some mildly amusing stoner humour and some senseless violence, the plot is thin and the character development non-existent. Christian Bale is, as ever, superb at bringing this mentally damaged individual to life, but he is essentially a static character for the two hours of the movie. Anyone with a half a braincell will see the HARSH ending coming a mile off.

HARSH TIMES played Toronto 2005 and is now on release in the UK. It opens in Turkey on September 22nd 2006, the US on November 10th 2006 and France on December 6th 2006.