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List Price: $19.95 | | Label: Weinstein Company
Salesrank: 26091
Released: May 20, 2008 |
| Our Price: $4.47 |
| Used Price: $0.01 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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| Features:
Closed-captioned Color Subtitled Widescreen NTSC | |
Editorial Review:
Erroll Babbage (Richard Gere) has spent his career tracking sex offenders and his unorthodox methods are nearly as brutal as the criminals he monitors. When he links one of his deranged parolees to the disappearance of a local girl, he and his new partner (Claire Danes) must scour the S&M underground to find her before it's too late.
Description of Flock:
Richard Gere stars in The Flock as Errol Babbage, a government employee in charge of tracking registered sex offenders who has become convinced he can tell when they're about to offend again. When a young girl is kidnapped, he loses his bearings and sinks into a violent obsession, dragging his new partner (Claire Danes) into a dogged investigation that includes abusive interrogations, flagrant violations of civil rights, and a whole lot of sexual tension between the two of them. The Flock is the sort of overheated thriller that wants to condemn sexual deviance while depicting it in absurdly lurid and titillating ways (the scenes in a porn studio/fetish market are slathered with moral indignation but ooze with repressed lust). The movie wants to be a portrait of a passionate man who risks becoming what he most abhors, but it's implausible at every turn. The Flock lurches from one sleazy sequence to another, intoxicated by its own hypocrisy, cheering on Babbage's vigilantism while pretending to compare it with the dangerous acting-out of the deviants. In the end, Babbage is redeemed and affirmed. Also featuring Ray Wise (Twin Peaks), KaDee Strickland (Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid), French Stewart (3rd Rock from the Sun), and an extremely brief appearance by pop star Avril Lavigne. --Bret Fetzer
Flock Reviews:
Crime drama... 
2009-11-03 - "The Flock" is directed by Andrew Lau (co-director of "Infernal Affairs"). Errol Babbage (Richard Gere) is trying to trying to track down a serial killer and Alison (Claire Danes) is his new assistant. Errol is an employee of the Department of Public Safety who keeps up to date on registered sex offenders. He is a surly, vigilante type who sometimes works outside of the law. It seems early on that we pretty well know who the serial killer is, but there is a twist at the end that adds to the drama of the climatic ending. This is a well paced and thrilling crime suspense movie that is well worth taking a look at.
NEVER DISAPPOINTED 
2009-11-02 - AS USUAL MY PURCHASE WAS PERFECT....NEVER DISAPPOINTED WORING WITH AMAZON....WOULD RECOMMEND HIGHLY.....LOOKING FORWARD TO DOING BUSINESS AGAIN...ROGER
The Wolf in the Fold
2009-06-24 - There are almost as many things to really like in this movie as much as there are things to be repulsed by and to dislike.
The best thing it has going for it is a terrific performance from Richard Gere. One of my guilty pleasures is THE MOTHMAN PROPHECIES, not because it's a great movie but I'm from that area and knew about the Mothman--and a really good performance from Richard Gere (for an off-the-wall supernatural movie that never quite gels, he gives a sincere depiction of grief and obsession that transcends the material).
In THE FLOCK, he's the burned-out monitor to his "flock," his workload of sex offenders he has to keep tabs on. He's done it for so long that he feels he can even sense when they're going to go "off the reservation" and commit more sex crimes. And if he thinks that, he doesn't mind stomping them into the dirt. Obviously, a very tightly-wound character who may or may not be someone to admire.
But that's the thing about this movie: I think a lot of people will be conflicted at one point or another.
Would anyone have a problem with Gere's character physically assaulting sex offenders for the entire movie? Is he a monster for abusing his power for keeping them "in line"? Are any of them truly rehabilitated? One genuinely evil character will leave wondering after the climax. This is a movie that gives you a glimpse into deviant sex...and leaves you to wonder if it turns you on.
I like all of these elements to a good sexual thriller.
But there were things that I wasn't so crazy about. I had a hard time believing that Claire Danes could take over his job. There were too many times that she appeared as a damsel in distress, especially in this line of work! The thriller structure was a little obvious toward the end but I'm not sure what else they could do with it.
All in all, THE FLOCK is worth seeing if you like movies like THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS and SEVEN (successful) or 8MM (not-so-successful). Dark, thoughtful, interesting. Something that makes you look inside your own little tastes and kinks, if you have any.
Do you?
'Taxi Driver' meets 'Silence of the Lambs'
2009-06-17 - Sporting a cool name and a hot temper Richard Gere stars as Det. Errol Babbage, a man watching over his Flock of registered sex offenders. Errol's methods are too harsh for his superiors so they give him one month before they let him go. Babbage is a loner obsessed with his work, so when one of his sickos doesn't provide the right answers he thinks nothing of slapping him around or beating another with a baseball bat. When a young girl gets kidnapped and held hostage Errol loses it and makes it his mission to bring her back before he shuffles off. Hoping to keep him in check his boss, (the great Ray Wise) assigns Errol a partner named Alison Lowry (Claire Danes). Babbage doesn't appreciate this so he breaks in his new partner by taking her to a sex dungeon where he rubs her face in how dirty and dangerous their job is. As more clues fall in to place Errol believes that one of his Flock whom he has tangled with before is behind this latest kidnapping. It's a genuine shame that more people aren't going to see this film since it was released Direct to Video. The directing by 'Infernal Affairs' Andrew Lau is solid and the performances he gets out of his cast are excellent. This is one of Gere's riskiest and best performances ever. Danes isn't bad it's just that her own work is overshadowed by Gere's powerhouse performance. The subject matter is disturbing and graphic which can make this a tough film to watch at times. Hopefully this little seen masterpiece will find an audience on DVD or cable.
Interesting movie, but disturbring 
2009-06-16 - Good movie thanks to the subject and Richard Gere - he really shines. Claire Danes is very low-key, which perhaps what the director meant for her to be, but the result is she projects no personality to speak of and thus forgetable.
I just had to write this review, for the sake of stating that I could not DISAGREE more with amazon editorial review. That review claims there's sexual tension between Gere and Danes. If there's, I completely missed it. I was actually expecting for something sexual to develop between the two, but nope - the bond could not come off more asexual. Another mindboggling editorial statement is that the movie "condemns sexual deviance while depicting it in absurdly lurid and titillating ways (the scenes in a porn studio/fetish market are slathered with moral indignation but ooze with repressed lust)". What??? If I were that editor I would keep these revelations to myself. Certainly did not find anything in the movie titillating - just utterly disturbing and nauseating.
In general, I found this movie great in a documentary/education sense. It's good to be aware of what kind of people lurk out there and what they are capable of.
