What a waste of my time!!!

Don't Believe the Hype

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Pretty boring. Whole thing feels like a director from Criminal Minds shot it and I don't mean that in a good way. Danes was horrible in this flick. The only gem in here was Ray Wise, excellent acting by him, as always. Don't waste your time, unless your having trouble sleeping.

Richard Gere really has come a long way since An Officer and A Gentleman and Pretty Woman. His last couple of movies have really shown his acting talent. This movie is no exception.Gere plays an agent checking up on sex-offenders living among the general population. The lead-in to the movie and his first couple of scenes show him to be VERY engaged in his job.A teenager goes missing and Geres character thinks it might be one from his "flock" that has taken her. There is a fine balance between the movies different subplots (checking up on the flock, his imminent "retirement", the new trainee and of course the abduction) and the acting is great all around.The camera-work is another thing, though. Fast clips and shaky camera ... does nothing good for any movie.

The Flock is another one of those films you see sitting on the shelf at your local video store and you are perplexed because it has big stars in it, but you've never heard of it before. I call these Alzheimers Films because they make you wonder why you don't remember hearing anything about them. Unlike most of its brethren, The Flock is fairly good, even if it swerves a bit too much out of realism and into melodrama. The film starts out strongly enough, though, that you're willing to forgive the plot holes that crop up in its second half.Erroll Babbage (Richard Gere) works for the New Mexico Department of Public Safety. His job is to keep track of a list of registered sex offenders, which he refers to as his "flock", and Erroll is almost as obsessive about that as the rapists and child molesters are about their deviant desires. Erroll is constantly circling stories of abduction and sexual violence in the newspaper and checking to see if one of his "flock" is responsible. He harasses his assigned offenders and isn't above beating the crap out of them if he feels they're getting out of line.Largely because of his frightening intensity and nearly maniacal focus, Erroll is being forcible retired. With a month left of the job, he's assigned to train a new sex offender supervisor named Alison Lowry (Claire Danes). She seems almost comically unprepared for the job compared to the unrelenting Erroll and is hesitant to accept what Erroll has to teach her about sex offenders, who they are and what they're capable of. But when a young woman disappears and Erroll finds a taunting clue that one of his "flock" might be responsible, these two complete opposites must rely on each other as they plunge into the darkness of exploitation, violation and murder to save the missing girl and as much of their own humanity as they can.The best thing about this film is the character of Erroll Babbage, both the magnetic performance of Richard Gere and the way the character is used to examine the corrosive nature of violent sexual predation. Erroll isn't a cop. He's a civil servant who's been called upon to act as an ever vigilant sentinel against people who can only achieve satisfaction through the misuse, abuse and even butchery of others. Erroll takes that responsibility so seriously it nearly destroys him as a functional human being, yet even more disturbing than that is the idea other people with this job don't take it as seriously. How many end up suffering at the hands of a sex offender because of the 9-to-5, "it's just a job" attitude of people like Alison Lowry? The Flock suggests that not only can sex offenders not be safely reintegrated into society, but that the act of corralling and controlling them is too corrupting to those who try to do it.The rest of the movie isn't quite a strong as its main character, however. The second half gets much more theatrical, becoming a depraved version of the standard "race to find the missing girl" story. There are also some moments when it gets really hard to believe and/or accept that Erroll and Alison don't call in the real cops to handle the situation and there's one scene where the story needs to get from point A to point B and the writers apparently didn't know how to do it, so they just wrote something really stupid to get the job done. And while Claire Danes does a nice job, her role is woefully undeveloped.It's not perfect, but The Flock is good enough to make you wonder why it never got a chance to play in theaters. It's certainly better than a lot of the crap that does.

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning A notably bad actor, getting by on his (now fading) looks rather than any strong dramatic talent, Richard Gere has always occupied a rather curious position in the American Hollywood scene, always a sure bet in leading man roles who still holds a notable presence today. But nowadays he seems to have settled more into these sort of direct to DVD/limited release roles and as such maybe seems to be more settled in his forte now.He has to draw on some stern matter here as hardened, cynical case worker Earl Babbage, one such worker assigned to a few hundred sex offenders in one area of the US, who along with his new protégé Allison Allthrop (Claire Danes) must take to his latest case, delving into the abduction of a young woman while trying to forgive himself for a case he failed on ages ago.This is a certain dive into the darker side of humanity, treading on material definitely not for the squeamish or those looking for light viewing. And as such it's a pretty strong, compelling film, unflinching and not constrained by it's direct to DVD budget. The only thing really pulling it back is the overly used jittery, fast cutting camera sequences used in the more dramatic moments that look a bit corny after a while. But it's still some of the solidest material I've seen Gere in, relentlessly getting darker and more over the edge as it goes on. ***