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The Sentinel is rated PG-13 for some intense action violence amounting to a handful of characters that are shot. Most discouraging is the film's cavalier attitude towards adultery. The scene of sensuality involves the hero and the First Lady, though the story moves on before any nudity. There's also some bad language, including taking the Lord's name in vain.

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The secret about this Secret Service thriller is out: The Sentinel is not so thrilling. Still, Michael Douglas shouldn't be feeling too badly about it. At least he was smart enough to stay far, far away from Basic Instinct 2.

In The Sentinel, Douglas plays veteran Secret Service agent Pete Garrison, who is disgusted with one of the other agents—David Breckinridge (Kiefer Sutherland)—because he suspects that Breckinridge had an affair with his ex-wife.

Meanwhile, Garrison is engaging in an affair himself—with the First Lady (Kim Basinger).

Are you filled with the American spirit yet? Wait, there's more. Things get complicated when Garrison is assigned to investigate a plot to assassinate the President (David Rasche), and make room for a sexy new agent on the force (Eva Longoria of TV's Desperate Housewives).

Director Clark Johnson, who also directed the underwhelming S.W.A.T., and writer George Nolfi, who scripted Oceans 12, have apparently fallen short of the standard set by other secret-agent thrillers like Wolfgang Petersen's In the Line of Fire and Andrew Davis' The Fugitive. In fact, even Kiefer Sutherland's hit television series 24 earns higher marks than this.

But David DiCerto (Catholic News Service) writes, "The Sentinel strikes a nice balance between being a smart mystery and a straight action film, with some dexterously executed chase sequences. Visually gritty and kinetic, the movie is garnished with pulses of surveillance-style images and sound-bites to create a high-tech atmosphere of paranoia, reminiscent of conspiracy classics like The Parallax View and Three Days of the Condor."

Bob Hoose (Plugged In) began thinking that it was a "nicely crafted little thriller. … But … while The Sentinel doesn't overdo the overt content (sex and gore) the way most of its 21st century peers do, it still puts audiences in the line of fire, leaving them to fend for themselves when it comes to ethics and morals."

Mainstream critics are highlighting the holes in The Sentinel's preposterous plot.

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