The Sentinels is a group of self appointed high school monitors at Vista Verde High. Leader Randy McDevitt (John Stockwell) befriends magnet student Danny Lennox (J. Eddie Peck), but may have ulterior motives as the group likes to torment those they feel don't belong in their social circle. This was Albert Pyun's third film and his first of several for Cannon. Probably inspired by The Wave (1981), this shows how fascism and intolerance can quickly grow out of control. The problem here is while you are supposed to hate the jocks, the guy playing Lennox's punk buddy is so annoying that you want to see him killed. One of the more interesting things is Stockwell co-wrote the script and opted to play the bad guy. Perhaps rebelling from his hero status in John Carpenter's Christine (1983)? Also impressive is the soundtrack (featuring the likes of The Smithereens and Depeche Mode) which shows you could get a song cheap back in the day as we all know Golan and Globus wouldn't put out big bucks for those artists (interesting note: this hit theaters the same week Robert Palmer's "Addicted to Love" featured in the film hit no. 1 on the Billboard charts). Cool cast of co-stars include Miguel Nunez, Don Michael Paul, Bradford Bancroft, Carey Lowell, and Thom Mathews (the last two later appearing in Pyun's better Down Twisted).

School newspaper editor and pool boy living in a warehouse with his drunk dad gets recruited by the cool kids to join their vigilante group called The Sentinels. His pal Kruger, a punk metal head smells trouble but he doesn't listen and things get ugly with bodies and fights and smashed cars.

This movie looked great, had a great 80s soundtrack, and was nearly great, but the story is mangled and the ending rushed as heck. There could have been some real drama and suspense but it was just sort of bungled into a rapid stop. One part most dangerous game, one part High school movie starring people who all looked 30. But the style was on point!