CHEST POKER: Michael Douglas (right)

The Sentinel

Starring: Michael Douglas, Kiefer Sutherland, Eva Longoria, Kim Basinger and Martin Donovan

If you’ve been craving a good whodunit and have had enough of the giant epic sagas and swashbuckling three-hour spectaculars, you’ll enjoy this latest offering at the big screen.

The basic plot is: Pete Garrison (Douglas) and William Montrose (Donovan) are Secret Service agents assigned to guard the US President and First Lady (Basinger). One of their own is gunned down and it emerges there’s a plot to kill the President and the biggest threat is from within – a mole in the Secret Service. Game on.

Add in a few twists – Garrison fails a mandatory lie detector test and is having an affair with the First Lady – and it makes for interesting viewing. Agent David Breckinridge (Sutherland) and new kid on the block Agent Jill Marin (Longoria) are assigned to rat out the mole, and it seems not all is as it first appears to be. There have been plenty of comparisons made between Sutherland’s character and that of his 24 character, Jack Bauer.

The Sentinel isn’t meant to be ground-breaking. The characters have all been done to death, but it’s still good entertainment and will keep you guessing along the way. And isn’t entertainment what it’s all about?

– Rachel Irving