The Flock (2007)

This film is about a hyper-vigilant employee of the department of public safety who, while training his young female replacement, has to track down a missing girl who he is convinced is connected to a paroled sex offender he is investigating.

Director:

Wai-keung Lau

Writers:

Hans Bauer, Craig Mitchell

Stars:

Richard Gere, Claire Danes, KaDee Strickland

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Richard Gere	...	Errol Babbage
Claire Danes	...	Allison Lowry
KaDee Strickland	...	Viola Frye
Ray Wise	...	Bobby Stiles
Russell Sams	...	Edmund Grooms
Avril Lavigne	...	Beatrice Bell
Kristina Sisco	...	Harriet Wells
Dwayne L. Barnes	...	Vincent Dennison (as Dwayne Barnes)
Matt Schulze	...	Glenn Custis
Debrianna Mansini	...	Harriet's Mother
Ed Ackerman	...	Louis Kessler
French Stewart	...	Haynes Ownby
Paul Scallan	...	Missing Girl's Father
Susan Conklin	...	Missing Girl's Mother
Carmen Serano	...	Woman in Gorilla Suit

Storyline

The paranoid registrant administrator of the Department of Public Safety Erroll Babbage 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. When the seventeen years old Harriet Wells 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.

---

Plot Keywords:

sex offender | retirement | investigation | pornography | shotgun | 

---

Taglines:

Evil has many faces. He has seen them all.

---

Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

---

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for perverse content involving aberrant sexuality and strong violence, and for language

Details

Official Sites:

Official soundtrack site RCV Entertainment [nl]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

4 August 2007 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Justicia a cualquier precio

Filming Locations:

Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$35,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Bauer Martinez Studios, Double Nickel Entertainment, Gibraltar Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

105 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Goofs

Erroll is flicking through Vincent Dennison's stuff. He opens a pornography magazine up. When he skips to the next page, exactly the same photo is shown on it.

---

Quotes

[first lines]
Erroll Babbage: [knocking] Department of Public Safety.
[knocking]
Erroll Babbage: Mr. Dennison? Vincent Dennison is a registered sex offender, the sooner I can verify his address, the sooner I can leave him alone!

---

Connections

Featured in Siskel & Ebert: Episode dated 17 May 2008 (2008)

---

Soundtracks

"After the Rain"
Written by Aaron Kaplan
Performed by Anna Montgomery

User Reviews

Interesting ideas, poor execution.

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