A matter of national insecurity - "The Suck-inel"

Director Clark Johnson brings his small-screen experience to the silver screen with a horrible little movie called "The Sentinel." Once you review Johnson's directing credits you see why this one played like a glorified TV drama and little else.

"The Sentinel" has a squishy and often porous plot about a Secret Service guy (Michael Douglas) being set up to look like a traitor. The would-be bad guy's protege (Kiefer Sutherland) is out to bring Douglas to justice or prove the evidence wrong or whatever. Throw in an especially lifeless performance from Kim Basinger, and you've got yourself one stinker of a waste of time.

Here are some of the problems with this movie:

There are many scenes designed to give the back story, but they accomplish very little; they are handled like afterthoughts with no ties to what's happening and no relevance overall.

The performances are across the board f-l-a-t; Sutherland is a watered-down Jack Bauer ("24"), Douglas bumbles around as an emotionless zombie and Basinger is mostly shown as an out-of-breath basket case.

The action sequences are straight out of any TV ensemble crime/cop drama; if you've ever even mistakenly watched one of these network programs, you'll be yawning through every shoot out and chase "The Sentinel" has to offer.

The revelation of the true evildoers and the final conflict are completely anti-climatic; everyone associated with bringing a resolution to this weak plot seemed like they were just phoning it in by that point.

To sum up, this movie isn't even a good rental. I consider myself fortunate to have watched it for free as a borrowed title. Otherwise, I'd be kicking myself for spending any amount of money to see it.

For a better check-your-brain-at-the-door flick of a similar nature, do yourself a favor and watch the 2000 action/drama "The Art of War" with Wesley Snipes and Kiefer's dad, Donald Sutherland. You'll be much better off.