The Sentinel was originally a novel written by Agent Gerald Petievich of the Secret Service, now made into a motion picture starring Michael Douglas, Kiefer Sutherland, Eva Longoria, and Kim Basinger. The tagline of the film is “In 141 years, there has never been a traitor in the Secret Service – Until Now” which pretty accurately describes the premise of the film. Michael Douglas plays Pete Garrison the personal bodyguard of the First Lady (Kim Basinger). He is one of the most trusted agents in the field, as he is known for having taken a bullet for Reagan during the 1981 assassination attempt. A fellow agent and close personal friend of Pete’s has just been assassinated and learns that he was killed for getting to close to the plot of the assassination of the President of the United States. It is determined that there is a mole in the Secret Service and Pete intends on tracking him down. The director of Secret Services demands that everyone be given the polygraph lie detector test, and in order to cover up his affair with the First Lady Pete fails the test. David Breckinridge (Kiefer Sutherland) the former best friend of Pete is the agent in charge of brining him down, as he is now the suspected mole. The rest of the movie follows the trials and tribulations faced by Pete as he tries to prove his innocence and uncover whom the real mole is.

The movie has a pretty decent storyline it makes you think a bit more than the average film nowadays. The acting is pretty solid by some well-known actors, and is what you would expect from the likes of Michael Douglas and Kiefer Sutherland, but not even they could save the movie from ultimately predictable ending and standard action. The Sentinel is dubbed as a thriller but I don’t find much basis for that, it is predictable but yet mildly entertaining. I recommend this movie worth watching at least once, but ultimately isn’t worth a purchase.

Video

Presented in a 1080p 2.40:1 aspect ratio, The Sentinel hits Blu-ray with mixed results. The transfer is inconsistent, often looking superb and at other times looking just average. The aging Michael Douglas is shown in HD and showcases every one of his wrinkles for us to see; the detail here is impressive. Flesh tones were somewhat of a disappointment, at times looking realistic but more often looking orangey. I also found the films transfer a bit too dark at times, often muting the details that would normally be seen in brighter shots. However I feel the transfer is still good enough to recommend despite its short comings in a few areas.

Audio

Fox has fitted The Sentinel with a DTS HD 5.1 Lossless audio track, though not currently heard in its full potential the audio track still sounds great. Dialogue sounded very good, as did the impressive music score. There were enough action sequences in the movie to keep the rear channels and bass constant, something I didn’t expect going into this movie. The final scene which takes place at the G8 summit in Toronto sounded excellent, from gunshots to intense music it was all here. Overall I thought the audio track was the best part of the disc, a definite surprise and a great job from Fox.

Special Features

We are given a good amount of features on this disc, all that are interesting to view at least once. Some features are even in HD, a definite step up for Fox in this department.

• Audio Commentary – Commentary with Director Clark Johnson and Screenwriter George Notti.
• Deleted Scenes – Five deleted scenes including an alternative ending, all included optional director commentary. The ending ties up a loose end concerning Pete and the first lady, which was nice to see.
• The Secret Service: Building on a Tradition of Excellence – A thirteen minute look on the elite secret service. We are given information on their origins and job details. The feature also talks about the impressive amount of detail and accuracy of the secret service in the film.
• In the President Shadow: Protecting the President – A seven minute feature that breaks down the job details of a secret service agent. This is a more in-depth feature on the real secret service but some overlap with the above feature
• Secret Service Intel Feed – A pop up track that plays during the movie that gives tidbits of secret service information.
• Making of Scenes- We are given two interactive making of features. Here you can see how the mall and G8 summit scenes were filmed. The side by side comparison with the final version and the rough cut were really cool to see.
• Theatrical Trailers

Final Thoughts

The Sentinel is a pretty bland movie, although worth watching at least once doesn’t provide enough to be revisited. If you are a fan of the movie then the audio, video, and special features are more than enough to recommend a purchase. Otherwise I would rent this movie and leave it at that, because it is definitely worth watching once.