Love-hate attitude to ‘Sentinel’

Is it possible to love a movie and hate it at the same time? “The Sentinel” works hard to prove that it is.

Here is a film riddled with faults.

The plot has been visited twice a year for the last decade. The motivation of the characters often doesn’t add up.

Details are neglected to create several “Oh, brother!” moments. I even figured out who the mole was about the second time he opened his mouth. Tut, tut. All those pros around him and little old me can see him coming when they can’t?

The thing is, “The Sentinel” kept me entertained. Michael Douglas’ character is about as likable as Michael Douglas can make his characters and his love affair with the first lady he is assigned to shield (and right under the nose of the President he is also charged to protect) is rife with possibilities.

When he is framed, he is smart enough and experienced enough to qualify as a super-hero of sorts; that keeps the audience rooting for him in spite his failure in the ethics department.

It was a pleasure to see Kim Basinger again and even lovelier to see her playing a mature woman instead of reaching for ingénue.

Kiefer Sutherland used to play more exciting roles as sick-o bad guys. (Do you remember the radical Marine in “A Few Good Men”?)

To the credit of screenwriter George Nolfi and novelist Gerald Petievich, Sutherland got to play a nuanced villain. In fact most all of the characters avoided flat, cookie-cutter personas because the script demanded it.

“The Sentinel” also has cinematic appeal.

At one point, I was so stunned by the action, that I felt as if I were viewing the most heinous of acts firsthand. Talk about a tummy-tumbler!

Now here’s the opposite side of the coin. As I was walking out of the theater, I realized that even this experience had been heightened by using an “I gotcha!” trick. So does “tawdry” count if we don’t realize we’ve been bamboozled until later?

If a movie is only expected to entertain, “The Sentinel” does its job. If we want more from the money we peel out of our entertainment budgets ? well, we can hope for better next weekend or ? the way things are going in 2006 ? perhaps the weekend after that.