The Flock

[camerata]

What a crappy movie. Exploitative (recurring images of women being bound, tortured and presumably raped), lacking in suspense, and with irritating effects such as scenes going in and out of focus. Richard Gere needs his head examining for doing this one. It's supposed to be about an officer from the "Dept of Public Safety" who's just been fired and is going over the edge. He's responsible for monitoring people on the sexual offenders register in New Mexico and thinks one of them may have abducted a teenage girl, but the director's (Andy Lau) idea of suspense is mainly flashing images of her bound and screaming on the screen. Even the end is pretty much a downer.

Give this one a miss. The Thai theatrical release has obviously been censored, but that probably wasn't a bad idea in this case. Definitely not one to take the wife and kids to.

[Ulysses G.]

Sounds great.

Thanks for the review. I'm looking forward to it.

[skippybangkok]

New Avtar ?

Well, tastes differ, wife an i saw it last night, and gave it thumbs up. Bit long winded, not the best movie ever, but was ok for us.

[TexasRanger]

I watched it yesterday and thought it was not bad, not brilliant but not bad. And for an 80 baht sukhumvit special who can complain?

[lazeeboy]

also saw it yesterday ,a very different movie for the 2 stars ,i enjoyed it though

[camerata]

Sounds great.

Thanks for the review. I'm looking forward to it.

Trust me, Ulysses, it isn't erotic in the least. In fact, it's a very cold movie. There are no characters we can empathize with. Richard Gere and Claire Danes have a sort of Mulder and Scully relationship. Gere is credible as a guy obsessed with his work to the point of becoming a vigilante, but the hints that he also may like hurting women don't come off as realistic at all. And when he gets creepy and violent, Danes treats him like a schoolboy having a hissy fit - again not very realistic.

The ending is a rip-off from Seven, which is a much better movie. It doesn't surprise me that the release date of this one was delayed from 2006 and it has still hasn't been released in the USA. Apparently some scenes were re-shot by an uncredited Western director.

[Florin]

Saw the trailer ad nauseam on the BTS, seemed like one of those movies that tries so hard to be serious but comes off as a cheap piece of crap.

[mrbojangles]

Sounds great.

Thanks for the review. I'm looking forward to it.

I thought the same.

But as i respect Camerata's view in the highest........I'll wait til it comes out on DVD

[lazeeboy]

of the movies out at the moment this one was'nt that bad

[lomatopo]

This movie, famed HK actor/director Andy Lau's first directorial feature outside of HK, has a checkered history that had "direct-to- DVD" written all over it. Only released (theatrical) in Asia, has been in the can for a few years, believe a lot was re-shot with Alan Smithee as director?

Edited February 5, 2008 by lomatopo

[A_Traveller]

IMDB has the reshoots credited to Niels Mueller IMDB Full Crew, and has a filming date for October 2005. Have to say the movie was OK, and did attempt to treat the complexities of the subject, but the editing style was annoying though. Gere's performance as a man on the edge is exceptional, but gets lost in the style overlay.

Regards

Edited February 5, 2008 by A_Traveller

[Cuban]

....a little off topic;

Of the DVDs currently availible from a Soi near you what purchases have been unexpected joys ?

I liked:

Chaos

Criminal

I didn't like:

Buowulf

[lomatopo]

I liked:

Criminal

If you liked Criminal you really should see the original, an Argentinian film, "Nine Queens". Much, much better.

Thanks for the tip on "Chaos", great cast, looks good. I like Ryan Phillippe, he was brilliant in "Way of the Gun" and last years, "Breach".

[mrbojangles]

If you liked Criminal you really should see the original, an Argentinian film, "Nine Queens". Much, much better.

I've seen that one. Excellent film even with the sub titles.