The Flock

The paranoid registrant administrator of the Department of Public Safety Erroll Babbage (Richard Gere) is forced to an early retirement due to his abusive behavior against the sex offenders that he should monitor, and shall spend his last eighteen days training his replacement Allison Lowry (Claire Danes). When the seventeen years old Harriet Wells (Kristina Sisco) is considered missing in his area of work, Errol is convinced that her disappearance is related to one of his parole sex offenders. However, his superiors do not believe on his investigations and he convinces Allison to follow him in the sick underworld of pornography and perversions trying to find the missing girl.

"The Flock" is a movie with unpleasant and bigoted story and characters with a good and dark cinematography but terrible edition and camera work. The ambiguous character of Richard Gere has a despicable behavior in spite of solving the case, and it is impossible to feel any empathy for him. In the beginning, there are statistics about the theme "sex offenders", and I do not know whether they are realistic or generated by a North American obsession that considers a sexual offense or harassment certain attitudes accepted by other societies. This film seems to be intended to spread a sort of concern and prejudice against those that have been condemned but paid their debt with the society, since they have been released on probation by the justice. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Justiça a Qualquer Preço" ("Justice at any Price")

First of all i have seen 8 mm and i am normally quite resistant to some 'heavy' images. But this movie did disturb me.

Most of the viewers complain the movie had a very bad pace, to few twist turns. I both agreed and disagreed here, yes when watching the movie you know who's 'dunnit' way to early but I loved the pace. In my eyes they really made time to make you loath the bad guys and feel repulsed by the idea what they did to those poor girls.

Richard gere was holding back like always, but I often find he's perfect for these roles. Maybe he did not put of a good performance, but he was just made for these roles. Claire Danes didn't impress me in this movie, quite a shame cause i normally really love claire danes ;). You kind of get the idea they used her for eye candy above everything else.

The first 80 minutes of the movie were quite decent in my eyes but the last 20 minutes were a bit of a disappointment. They seemed to be a bit over the top.

All in all a decent movie. 6 out of 10

The Flock was nothing too original, but a movie doesn't have to be original in order for it to be good. For its few, if any, forgivable flaws as a by-the-books detective/Seven thriller, the Flock as a whole is still a taut, brooding, gritty, intense and fun little popcorn flick. Like I said, the material isn't exactly fresh but it is still far from stale and Richard Gere, who act as though he were a man possessed, elevates the script and the film that much higher in terms of overall quality. This is not bargain basement entertainment, nor did it deserve to go straight-to-video in the US, especially given the talent involved both in front of and behind the camera. The list includes: Richard Gere (in his prime), Claire Danes, Andrew Lau (director of Infernal Affairs), and of course, the Weinstein Company (who need no introduction seeing as they are Hollywood.)Despite the lack of hype, the Flock deserves recognition for its solidity, or at least a watch. trust me, its a hell of a lot more thoughtful and entertaining than 99% of the garbage that continues to get released on a daily basis.

Gere and Danes star as 2 workers for the department of public safety who keep track of released sex offenders. Gere, who plays Babbage, refers to them as his flock. Gere is an over obsessed vigilante whom is on his way out. He is training, new comer Allison, to take over his job. Gere sees his flock as very sick, disturbed puppies. He asks them questions that are not on the list, and tries to act like the police and solve crimes. He keeps getting warned for this behavior, hence the reason he is being replaced. During his final few days on the job, a young girl goes missing, and Babbage is sure it is one of his flock whom has gone astray. Him and Allison narrow a list down and discover some of the offenders have gone AWOL. So, he decides that he needs to track the missing girl down rather than help the police. That part is a little far fetched.

There is some sick, twisted stuff shown in this film. Like when Babbage and Allison go to this building where a bunch of sick people do disturbing things to each other. Also, there are the people who kidnapped the girl. At the end of the film, we see what sick freaks they are. However, I wouldn't call this movie excessive because not really much is shown on film.

FINAL VERDICT: If you like thrillers and films about serial killers and cops chasing killers, then you will like this.

The films starts of good: the premise is intriguing and there are some scenes that get you dragged into the movie. As the movie progresses, the script starts making less and less sense and the last twenty minutes felt incredibly rushed and out of tone.

The direction wasn't good at all. What bothered me for instance was the camera-work. Too many different styles are mixed and it all ends up looking incredibly sloppy instead of the intended 'modern/flashy' effect. The music should have been better too. There were numerous examples of scenes that should have been silent that had music playing in the background and vice versa. Also, the music played was not of the highest quality.

The film is somewhat engaging, it deals with a sensitive subject and tries to deal with it in an honest yet confronting matter. At least, in the beginning. In the 2nd part of the movie there's little left of the objectivity in the script. I won't name any concrete examples because I don't want to spoil it for anyone but I'm sure you'll know what I'm talking about if you ever see it.

The acting was all right in my opinion. Not top notch but not horrible either. Gere is average like always and Danes doesn't really leave big impression either. The supporting cast should've been better, the example of Miss Avril Lavigne immediately comes to mind. She manages to ruin the only scene she has.

Many people will compare this movie to 8mm, because of the similar harsh theme but they have little in common. 8mm is a lot more powerful,darker and shows more guts(not literally). It's easily the better film. There are some shocking scenes in 'The Flock', one of which resembles a scene in 8mm a lot but this time they lacked the nerve to go all the way.

To summarize, is this movie bad? No, but it won't blow you away. The ideas are interesting but after a while the script feels uninspired and formulaic. The acting is mediocre and the score is bad. It's not really worth seeing but it'll briefly entertain you.

5.4/10