Review of The Sentinel (2006) by Filipeneto — 02 Nov 2019

Another movie in which the security of the American president is threatened and one man tries to save the day.

This is another movie that revolves around the President of the United States of America and any threats to his safety or integrity. The Americans see the presidential figure as a symbol of their prestige and their capacity for affirmation towards the rest of the countries. In a way, they regard their president's figure as some European countries do with their kings, except that the latter are not eligible.

In this movie, there is a hidden plot to assassinate the president, which involves an element infiltrating presidential security. But the only person who really realized this - Secret Service veteran Pete Garrison - is quickly incriminated, compromised and discredited. In fact, what no one knows is that the only thing he's guilty of is having an affair with the First Lady, which he determinedly tries to protect when they try to incriminate him and put him out of play. From here, Garrison will try everything to at the same time save the president and clear his honor by exposing the truth.

The cast features a series of well-known names, starting with Michael Douglas, who played the lead role, although he never shows any enthusiasm or taste for what he is doing. Worse, just the scenes where he has to make romantic match with Kim Basinger. Rarely have I seen a couple with such a lack of empathy, especially considering that they are supposed to have an extramarital affair. Their sex must be bureaucratic, to say the least. Well, Basinger herself doesn't seem to know exactly what she's doing in this movie. Kiefer Sutherland meets the minimums, while Eva Longoria is simply a walking pair of breasts.

Well, I confess that the movie didn't convince me much. There are a number of other movies with similar assumptions that do much more and better. Anyway, it's not an entirely bad movie. The biggest problem with the movie, in my view, is the latent predictability and the director's inability to give the movie something that truly makes us adhere to the story. It's a movie we see for a while without really feeling what is happening. And yes, there is some subliminal Americanist propaganda surrounding the whole "president cult" the film reveals.