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Sentinelle is so-called because it follows Operation Sentinel, an anti-terrorist unit who patrol sensitive areas of Paris in 2015, and the lead is female, namely, Klara (Olga Kurylenko – Momentum, Quantum of Solace).
She struggles to get over the fact an operation went wrong in Syria when they were trying to track down a particular individual, before a bomb went off in a place they didn’t count on… although you might, if you watch as many films as I do.
As such, she’s become a loose cannon, even flipping out a bit when breaking up a fight between a man and a woman, and almost tries to drown the man in the sea. It doesn’t help that she’s become a junkie on the side, getting addicted to painkillers from the physical and mental anguish of the job.
A situation puts her sister, Tania (Marilyn Lima), in a coma in the hospital, and naturally, she wants to find out who’s behind it, but rather than late the police handle it, she’d rather pull out all the clichéd plot points in the book in order to fulfil an implausible revenge nonsense movie without any bite to it.
Given that Russians are behind it, this is hardly John Wick. At 80 minutes, it’s also surprisingly short. Plus, it’s really stupid that fights break out in places which would normally be well-populated, but here? There’s no-one else to be seen for miles!
As an aside or two, I like that there’s a guy in the credits, Julian De Backer, labelled as “Toilet chap”.
Also, this is an 18-certificate for some reason. Netflix states it’s for “sexual violence”, but there’s nothing that stands out in that regard, and the punch-ups are fairly standard fare for even a 15-certificate, these days.
Watch Olga’s Momentum, instead. That’s equally silly, but much more satisfying.
Sentinelle is on Netflix now, but isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 80 minutes
Release date: March 5th 2021
Studio: Netflix
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
Rating: 4/10
Director: Julien Leclercq
Producer: Julien Madon
Screenplay: Julien Leclercq, Matthieu Serveau
Cast:
Klara: Olga Kurylenko
Tania: Marilyn Lima
Leonod Kadnikov: Michel Nabokoff
Lt Eric Jaubert: Martin Swabey
Capt. Catherine Muller: Carole Weyers
Yvan Kadnikov: Andrey Gorlenko
Maria Kovalev: Antonia Malinova
Yvan Kadnikov: Andrey Gorlenko
Armurier: Gabriel Almaer
Operation Solder Sentinelle: Blaise Afonso
Lieutenant Colonel: Guillaume Duhesme
Aurélien: Michel Biel
Syrian father: Mustapha Makhada
Syrian mother: Salmane Taydi
Dealer: Mikael Cassoli
Toilet chap: Julian De Backer
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.