The Flock
(2006/Genius DVD)
Picture:
C+ Sound: B- Extras: D Film: C
Usually
Richard Gere does lightweight material, while his dramas are politically
problematic and thrillers badly formulaic.
If you wonder why you may not have heard of Andrew Lau’s The Flock since it was first released
in 2006, it is because it is very dark and Gere plays one of the most unlikable
men he has ever played. That is good,
because outside of Claire Danes, this film has little else going for it,
despite Lau being the director of Infernal
Affairs, the inspiration for Martin Scorsese’s The Departed.
Gere
plays a police investigator who deals specifically with sex crimes and he is
not exactly playing with the full deck himself.
He breaks the law at times in ways that shows a lack of stability and as
he is about to be pushed out of his job, a bizarre, new, connected series of
abductions is taking place, just in time for a new partner (Danes) to show up.
The
S&M and fetish angles are boring and cannot cover up the formula and yet
another attempt to do something like Silence
Of The Lambs, but some will enjoy seeing Gere gone wild. Besides that, skip it, because you are not
missing much here.
The
anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image is slightly soft and intentionally so,
but there is an annoying paleness that never helps the story any. The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix has a good
soundfield, but nothing special and there is no DTS on this disc despite what
the back of the case indicates. There
are no extras, but enough is enough.
- Nicholas Sheffo
