“My job’s this: when I get there, their heart’s beating; when I go home at night, their heart’s still beating”. That’s Secret Service agent turned Hollywood technical advisor Gerry Cavis in Protecting The President, a hardnosed featurette that’s all guns, shades and earpieces. It sets the tone for the boys’ toys extras, packed with info about shooting submachine guns without breaking your arm and how to take a bullet for Prez.
Kiefer Sutherland and Michael Douglas are the Secret Servicers in a strop, skinny-assed Eva Longoria the thrusty young thing and, with all of them having been put through boot camp, The Sentinel’s action sequences have a lived-in reality. It’s a shame, then, that screenwriter George Nolfi’s convoluted conspiracy plot about the assassination of the President keeps the Berettas holstered for so long. “Test audiences didn’t like it,” says director Clark Johnson on the yak track. Who can blame them?
DVD Extras: Audio Commentary, Deleted scenes, 'The Secret Service: Building On A Tradition Of Excellence' featurette, 'In The President's Shadow: Protecting The President' featurette.
