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Life & Arts

'Sentinel' rides high on writer

Film Scamp

Geronimo Rodgriguez 

I'm just not a huge fan of Michael Douglas.

I first thought he was the luckiest guy in the world when I saw him search all over Sharon Stone's body for evidence in 1992's Basic Instinct. Later, I would catch glimpses of his poor acting efforts in Romancing the Stone, Jewel of the Nile and War of the Roses. What finally killed me was when I noticed he had produced the 1975 classic One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest; the film would win best picture that year at the Academy Awards, so Douglas walked away with an Oscar.

I love that film, and I just don't understand how someone could be involved in a film like that, and in turn, use that power to make such mediocre work. It doesn't help that Douglas uses every chance he gets to remind people of who his father is: Kirk Douglas, who I thought did well in 1960's Spartacus. He may as well just get off me with that junk and try making a decent film every now and then.

Douglas returns to the screen Friday with The Sentinel, which seems like a promising film and looks even more appealing after checking out the credits. All I know about the film's director, Clark Johnson, is he's directed loads of episodes for TV shows and he helmed SWAT. So they got some fresh meat to handle some junk that has Douglas, Kiefer Sutherland and the stunning Eva Longoria tagged to it.

But the key to this junk lies in what writer Gerald Petievich churned out this time around.

Back in 1985, William Friedkin directed To Live and Die in L.A., which was based on one of Petievich's novels. The film, which starred William L. Petersen and Willem Dafoe, was an excellent crime drama that didn't rely on some movie fluff to show the underworld of making counterfeit money. I don't know if that junk they did in the film works, but when I saw the movie back when I was just breaking in my video membership, I was tempted to try that junk.

Petievich may know something about junk like that. His father was a Los Angeles Police Department officer, and his brother is a retired member of an LAPD gang unit. Petievich, himself, is a retired U.S. Secret Service agent.

Sentinel is about a Secret Service agent, played by Douglas, who is disgraced by his office and is out to foil an assassination plot geared toward the U.S. president. Sutherland plays the guy trying to stop Douglas's Pete Garrison. Longoria plays the sexy intern or some junk like that. Eva, I'm kidding. I'm just kidding. I love you. No, I'm kidding.

My money is on Sutherland as the bad guy. Either Douglas or the first lady in the film will shoot his character dead. Thinking about this during the movie won't make or break the ending; it's all the junk in between that matters. Remember what I just said; some filmmaker said that a while ago. I can't remember who it was, so I'll just say I said it from now on.

Aside from all this junk, I may decide to go see The Sentinel this weekend because that's how much of a film junkie I am. But I may think otherwise. Besides, I'm just not a huge fan of Michael Douglas.
 

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