The Sentinel 2006

Critics score:
33 / 100

Reviews provided by RottenTomatoes

Peter Debruge, Miami Herald: The movie goes barreling full-speed ahead in the wrong direction, as if the umpteenth film about a potential presidential assassination could possibly compare to, say, any given episode of 24. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: A fairly by-the-numbers route through shootings, framings, diabolical plots and lots of dark-suited Secret Service types talking frantically into their shirt cuffs. (Watch closely, and you'll figure out pretty early who the bad seed is.) Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: After a solid first third, The Sentinel wobbles and lurches and starts unsurprising you with its unsurprises. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: Nobody's better than Michael Douglass as playing that guy who makes that big mistake, and then spends the rest of the movie trying to atone for it. Read more

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: The Sentinel is one of those well-oiled-machine movies from Hollywood that's slick in an inoffensive way, efficient in a give-the-viewers-what-they-want way. It has no personality per se, but that's what a picture like this is all about. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: A mediocre time-waster Read more

Bill Muller, Arizona Republic: The movie keeps running in circles, creating the illusion of progress. But by the end, you've gone nowhere. The Manchurian Candidate it isn't. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: It's as dutiful and humorless as any lesser Harrison Ford vehicle, though not as unforgivable as this year's Ford jalopy, Firewall. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: Yes, it's not always plausible and unapologetically by the numbers, but when the numbers are polished to such a high sheen, it would be next door to treason to complain. Read more

Bruce Westbrook, Houston Chronicle: The Sentinel's brains may be mush, but its brawn is powered by superb stunts, high-tech gizmos and a potent sense of peril. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: The dialogue is wooden, so are many of the subsidiary performances, but the action is often good. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: The movie strains with fast cuts and Steadicam swoops to make thrilling a job that, while hardly mundane, should be routine. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: There are tense situations, daring escapes, shots fired, innocent civilians at risk, foreign terrorists. What else do you need? Read more

Gregory Kirschling, Entertainment Weekly: Eva Longoria is the first-day-on-the-job rookie Sutherland improbably takes on as his partner. Her presence is the only irrefutable confirmation that this musty movie was indeed shot in the 21st century. Read more

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: A decently crafted if dull innocent-man-on-the-run drama with all the excitement of a White House press briefing. We know most of the answers before there are questions. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: The Sentinel, a contrived and tepid thriller that insists on wanting to interest us in its main plot -- the usual nefarious plan to assassinate the leader of the free world. Read more

Philip Wuntch, Dallas Morning News: The Sentinel winds up being a cool way to spend a couple of hours. For the average moviegoer of late, that's almost joyous news. Read more

Scott Foundas, L.A. Weekly: The actors look uniformly unhappy to be there. Read more

Jan Stuart, Newsday: All this fuss and bother over a very limited leading man who has stayed too long at the fair, brandishing his brawn. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: If you're going to make a movie with the same title as a second-rate horror film, it should at least be as entertaining as that second-rate horror film. Read more

Jami Bernard, New York Daily News: The story and style fit comfortably with today's TV and movie fashions: the cop procedural, kinetic editing, a pressure-cooker job rife with competition, and a countdown to possible disaster. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: This is solid genre filmmaking that makes up for a lack of surprises with superior performances, excellent depictions of tradecraft (shades of CSI) and whiplash editing and pacing. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: So, although some enjoyment can be had from watching The Sentinel with an uncritical eye, it remains a deeply flawed piece of mainstream action entertainment. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: At a time when American audiences seem grateful for the opportunity to drool at mindless horror trash, it is encouraging that well-crafted thrillers are still being made about characters who have dialogue, identities, motives and clean shirts. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: A well-constructed and genuinely tense thriller. Read more

Grady Hendrix, Slate: There are thousands of us in over-air-conditioned screening rooms all over the country, throwing our bodies between you and bad movies. When I see a bullet coming, I'll take the hit so you don't have to. Don't thank me, ma'am. It's my job. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: It's a pity that a film with so much promise descends into such lazy predictability. Read more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read more

Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star: If the movie had seized on the purely tacky melodramatic potential of the plot so far -- The Sentinel might have floated above its own silliness on bubbles of pure soap. Read more

Time Out: Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: It's a competent, if forgettable and implausible, thriller with some decent acting on the part of Sutherland and Michael Douglas as Secret Service agents. Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: A half-hearted exercise in political paranoia,The Sentinel unravels its wrong-man scenario with business-like efficiency and an impressively jittery visual scheme, but falls far short of providing visceral or emotional thrills. Read more

Bill Gallo, Village Voice: [The film] has more holes than Bush's war plan and employs less fluent English. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: Sentinel is a medium-dumb thriller that starts out with momentary promise but gets progressively sillier. Read more