Vermisst - Ein teuflisches Spiel

The unique selling point is an ex-surfer who is now a private eye of sorts. He surfs, drives classic car, wears outlandish Hawaii shirts and drinks bottles water which he keeps in an old cooker oven.

Really poor - the bar pool room scene was cringe, the bad guy's cronies cheer like it is the second coming when he pots a ball. The scene, where of course the good female lead wins is weird as you do not see the balls being potted - just a view from the floor of them taking shots.

The only movie I think I will hear the bad man say to the private eye 'meet me on the polo field at 3 tomorrow'. Then attempt to kill the male lead whilst on horseback with polo sticks.

Also the scenes with the homeless thugs were really stupid.

If you have a chance to see this movie, you should give it a chance. It has more good points than bad. It was shown locally with the title: The Churchill Files. Schneider plays Sam Churchill, an ex-surf bum who does some freelance detective work to make ends meet.

I was drawn into this movie by the opening scene where Robyn Lively tries to hire Schneider to find her missing father. This scene seemed to ring true in that the dialogue seemed like the way real people would have behaved in this situation.

There are other scenes in the film that have this real quality. On the other hand there are some scenes that are typical private eye movie cliches.

This movie has all the elements of the "Big Sleep" and "Chinatown" but these elements have been changed around in a manner that makes them seem somewhat fresh.

I guess this was meant to be a possible TV detective show, ala the Rockford Files. Not a bad effort considering the small budget. Schneider doesn't quite have enough lines on his face to play the over the hill surfer whose life hasn't turned out the way he had hoped, but in some of the scenes he pulls it off.