La sentinella

Gently put, Sentinelle is a watered down version of movies like Taken (Liam Neeson) with a little more focus on the broken character of our heroin. The action sequences are okay but compared to the genre standard of vigilante, revenge movies rather mediocre and lack verve, violence, speed, amount. As the rest of the story does not really make up to that lack of action quality, Sentinelle can't really satisfy the audience action nor drama wise. All in all: okay, a movie of TV standard, with a solid game by Olga Kurylenko. Verdict: nothing remarkable, but not that bad like many reviews and ratings indicate, that's at least my opinion.

Kurylenko's intense performance is solid as a French soldier coping w/PTSD. Using it as a driver for revenge.

Story have very little exposition to slow it down.

Fight choreography is concise and adequate for the amount of violent encounters in a 80min runtime.

Witnessing the 'sentinelle' sacrifice nearly everything is reason enough to see this movie.

There was absolutely nothing new in this film that hasn't already been done before, and done much better. The directing was sub-par and bland. The shaky camera got annoying, and the choreographed action scenes weren't anything great. Even at a mere 80 min runtime, the slow pacing and lack of any real narrative outside the conceptual story made this film drag on and feel much longer. Everything in the writing was cliched and predictable. There really was no point in making this film. Even as a fan of Olga Kurylenko, I felt she was underutilized. You wont miss a thing if you skip this one. It's a generous 5/10 all going to some decent cinematography and to the adequate casting and performances.

Just like 99% of people who are going to watch this, I was also drawn in by Olga. I knew the movie was spoken in French before watching, but had no idea Olga was so fluent. I thought I'd be able to practice my language skills a bit. Usually, with movies like this. A non native speaks a little slower, has simple dialogues & the subtitles linger that fraction longer. This wasn't really the case for me. I didn't realize Olga holds dual citizenship (French/Ukrainian ) before watching. So, because I'm rustier than I thought. I found myself reading more than just some words. I almost had to read everything which took too much of the cinematography away. Such beautiful scenery I couldn't enjoy without pausing... *thank god for streaming, lol*

The movie itself was nothing special. Just your basic "how far would you go for family?" or "you've messed with the wrong bloodline (Taken)" type of thing. It's probably a 4-4.5. But Olga rounds it up to a solid 5. She has talent, that's a given. Just a shame the lead role in something other than the mainstream English speaking movies. Won't give her the coverage she deserves.

Boring and unrealistic from head to toe. The story is simple and predictible and the action lacks continuity.