Double Feature

December 2006 - Ahhh, the holidays. Peace on earth. Good will toward man. Good luck. Sometimes it's all just too much to take. But, before you take it out on some unsuspecting sales clerk, check out the following movies and let the stars do the shooting for you.

The Sentinel, a 2006 thriller, features Michael Douglas (Streets of San Francisco), Kiefer Sutherland (24) and Eva Longoria (Desperate Housewives). Clark Johnson (E.N.G., Homicide: Life on the Street) directs.

Douglas plays Pete Garrison, a Secret Service agent who took a bullet during the Reagan assassination attempt. Twenty-five years later, he's still on the job, protecting the president and having an affair with the first lady (Kim Basinger).

Sutherland plays a character who is not named Jack Bauer and who works at a federal agency that is not called CTU. It's also not called the FBI. Kiefer and Garrison used to be best buds, but Kiefer got mad because he thought Garrison slept with his wife.

When word get out about a possible plot to assassinate the president, Garrison falls under suspicion. He goes on the run and Kiefer runs after him. Everyone runs to Toronto, and the bad guys get killed.

Overall review: Ehhh, it was OK. Basically, people with a fair amount of TV experience got a fair amount of money to make a pretty fair movie. It's about 90 minutes long, though it seems longer. Some of the dialogue goes by quickly and you're not sure what it all means. But, that's OK because, soon enough, someone's going to shoot someone and make it all better. Eva Longoria doesn't have a lot to do, but she does get to put a bullet in a fire extinguisher.

The bullets fly fast and furious in Mr. & Mrs. Smith. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie play John and Jane Smith, a husband and wife who are bored with their marriage. They're both professional assassins and they're both clueless. Neither has managed to figure out that the other is a killer. Apparently, it doesn’t take one to know one.

Anyway, their professional lives collide when they're assigned to kill the same target. Everything gets FUBAR and they miss the target. Then, each is assigned to take out the assassin who messed up the mission. That's when Mr. & Mrs. Smith finally get a clue.

Overall review: Ehhh, it was OK. Pitt and Jolie have good chemistry and some snappy dialogue. If only they had a better movie! This one goes on much longer than it should have and, at times, I wasn't sure where they got all those guns they were shooting. Still, I'd like to see them again. Maybe we could call the sequel "Mr & Mrs. Smith Go to Washington."

The Sentinel and Mr. & Mrs. Smith are rated PG-13. Both are out on video and DVD.