rating:
(out of
4 stars)United States; 2007
Directed by Andrew Lau; produced by Jennet Kahn, Andrew Lau, Philippe Martinez, Larry Rapaport, Adam Richman, Elie Samaha; written by Hans Bauer, Craig Mitchell
Starring Richard Gere, Claire Danes, KaDee Strickland, Ray Wise, Russell Sams, Avril Lavigne, French Stewart
Here is a film I want to spoil for you so badly, I am having trouble to control myself. There is no reason to go and see this, except to see what Hollywood can do with a great Asian director. The film is predictable, often boring, sometimes laughable, which is a strange thing considering its subject matter dealing with sex offenders.
Richard Gere is an overactive employee of the department of public safety, responsible for keeping track of known sex offenders. He is about to leave his job and now he must train new girl Claire Danes, who really is not up for the job. Gere believes a kidnapped girl is taken by one of his "flock" and together with Danes he tries to solve the case, constantly forgetting he is not a cop. In his spare time he goes out, masked, to hit the offenders with a baseball bat.
The film introduces possible kidnappers early on, and the outcome is easily guessed after twenty minutes or so. The most ridiculous thing is how every single person introduced gets a part in the bigger picture, some more important than others, which can only make you laugh once you realize how stupid this basically is.
Gere and Danes, in weak performances, are both very unlikable and therefore the audience could not care less what happens to them. The film also misses some possibilities to push limits; it deliberately plays everything as safe as possible, almost wasting the R-rating it hardly deserves.
Director Andrew Lau could probably blame his screenwriters Hans Bauer and Craig Mitchell for this terrible film, but from the man behind 'Infernal Affairs' (remade as 'The Departed' by Martin Scorsese) I expected a lot more. If you have a choice between this film and any other, please, watch the other.