Movie Review: "The Sentinel"
Category: Movies...
Posted Friday, April 21, 2006 at 03:59 PM [GMT-6]

Note: No spoilers here. You should know me better than that.

I'm not going to get into the debate about whether Michael Douglas is too old to play a guy doing the things he does in this movie. After all, if Catherine approves, far be it from me to make any snide observations. In any event, he's better cast in The Sentinel than Harrison Ford was in Firewall, so we'll just leave it at that.

It helps that Sentinel is a much better movie than Firewall, even though it suffers from a few huge credibility gaps in the plot. Nonetheless, it has enough twists and turns to get you happily engaged and willing to play along with those gaps.

It also offers an absolutely fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the security measures employed to protect the POTUS (and his wife). I'm sure that much of it was non-factual; I can't imagine the Secret Service allowing a filmmaker to put its actual tactics on-screen, but they rang true anyway.

If you're not a Michael Douglas fan, you might want to skip this one as he appears in about 98% of the scenes. Eva Longoria gets some top billing but she's just an eye-candy afterthought. Kiefer Southerland is, well, intense.

And, no...I'm not going to even comment on the plot. Remember the "no spoilers" disclaimer?

Overall, The Sentinel is a good start to the summer action-adventure offerings. I give it...

Ant Rating: Rating: 3 Ants

Notes:

Two of the trailers were for The Omen and The DaVinci Code. I couldn't help snickering at the realization that it's quite likely the former movie is more grounded in truth than the latter. FWIW, I don't plan to see either.

Poseidon? Well, that's another story. It's must-see move-ee. (Sorry.)

The Sentinel was mostly filmed in that jerky, grainy style that's so popular with the kids nowadays. Unfortunately, it sent my wife home midway with motion sickness. Fortunately, we were in separate vehicles so I could fill her in on the remainder of the movie.

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Comments

Out of interest, Did you ever read the book of the Da Vinci code?

Posted by: Rachel at April 21, 2006 06:47 PM

Rachel, I've not read the book, and have no desire to. Have you?

Posted by: Eric at April 21, 2006 09:45 PM

To be honest, I have but mainly so that I could be informed about what I was fighting. I also admit to scoffing the whole way through about how wrong this and that was...

Posted by: Rachel at April 22, 2006 07:46 PM

I think a lot of folks have read it for that reason, and I see nothing wrong with doing so. I simply don't have enough time to read the things I'm interested, let alone to read something that I know in advance I won't enjoy.

Posted by: Eric at April 22, 2006 08:46 PM

Makes sense...I'm at that stage now. Still got those books I told you about ages ago to read!

Posted by: Rachel at April 22, 2006 10:09 PM

I guess it's really a matter of how we prioritize our time. I'll admit that I don't always make the best choices in that regard, but some things seem more obvious than others.

Posted by: Eric at April 22, 2006 10:26 PM

I was thinking about that today and I decided that I really didn't want to read the book I was posting about today - So I put it aside! Also you might like tomorrow's post because I especially included some flesh-eating carp for you hehe!

Posted by: Rachel at April 23, 2006 06:33 AM

Eric, I'm wondering about your fireant rating system. Very rarely do I see just 3 ants in a row (in the real world as opposed to the Fireant Gazette world).

So....is 3 fireants a good rating, or a horrible one?

Posted by: Janie at April 23, 2006 05:29 PM

Do you mean to tell me that you didn't tune into the liveblogging of the Super Bowl this year, in which the fire ant rating was introduced? I'm shocked -- shocked, I tell you! ;-)

Anyhoo, it's a five ant system: 1 being not worth crawling out of the mound for; 5 being a veritable ant festivus.

Posted by: Eric at April 23, 2006 05:59 PM

I did log in to the Superbowl blog...I just, uh, forgot.

Visions of clay pigeons are still dancing in my head from yesterday's ConocoPhillips Halliburton Bad Boy Blast.

An amazine 549 shooters...many of our local Jr. ROTC young people selling chances for a Mule ATV (they are all SO nice!) (And I never identified your nephew, if he was there?)..lots of moolah made for the law enforcement folks...the DPS helicopter came and visited us (very cool!)...and...I shot 82/100! Pretty good for an event of mammoth proportions organizing day! We are so blessed to live in such a giving community!

Thanks for (re)explaining the fireant rating system!(I guess, if I ever do a blog I could implement a clay pigeon rating system...nah, it would take too many - though, I think, if everything were relative, there are probably wayyyyyyy more ants in the world than biodegradable clay pigeons(mmmuuuuaaaah to the Sierra Club folks.))

Posted by: Janie at April 23, 2006 06:16 PM

Janie, I haven't heard a report from The Nephew; I assume that he was, indeed, out there. But it sounds like a great success...and maybe you'll learn to shoot that gun someday. ;-)

I think a clay pigeon rating (and blog) is exactly what the blogosphere needs!

Posted by: Eric at April 23, 2006 10:29 PM
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