Review of Surveillance (2006) by Kenny B — 18 Dec 2009

Two FBI agents show up in a small town where a team of serial killers has been running wild. They have three witnesses. A shy soft spoken 8 year old girl whose family has just been brutally murdered. A strung out on cocaine Junkie whose boyfriend has just been killed and a corrupt cop who during the shootout lost his partner. All three begin to spin a web full of confusing plots, mismatched timelines, death and violence. Nothing is what it seems to be, none of these people can fill in the missing piece of the puzzle which is who the killers are.

A 97 minute movie turns out to feel like 197 minutes. The first 77 were boring, and skipped the point of the film,. and then they just loaded it all on in the final 20 minutes. But still when waiting so long to reveal so much so late it doesn?t usually make sense. I was watching this film hoping for something different, but it was all just silly interrogation with silly characters. It seemed like I hated this film which I did not, I just have mixed feelings about it. Ever since I saw it, I have been contemplating what to rate it, how to review, it was different, slow and boring with a twist at the end that wasn?t surprising if you have seen good films. I didn?t want to hate this film, but I don?t want to rate it with a 4 either. One of this films you want to be friendly harsh with because there was good elements in it.

The cast was one of those elements. Pullman, Ormond and the rest of the cast did good jobs. At times Pullman seemed forced, annoyed, but he still managed to deal a performance that was worthy for a decent film like this. Still not the best acting I have ever seen.

As for the twist it wasn?t so shocking with the hints that they gave you along the way. It was annoying that they were handing you hints on a massive silver platter and playing down the intelligence of the audience. Don?t play on the intelligence of the audience shock them beyond belief. This film couldn?t do that just like many films cannot. The ending was bizarre but not the kind of bizarre you could enjoy. It was a psycho sexual kind of ending, pleasure from pain, pain from pleasure kind of idea. It really weirded me out, not because it was good, because it sort of just happened and it was weird. Throughout the film there was a weird sense of sexual tension with the corrupt cops only to find out the FBI agents who were brought in to help were there for the exact same reason. They killed the entire police force the junkie but let the little girl roam free. Why is this? Didn?t make much sense. The scene where they killed the junkie was as messed up as movie scenes go, I know it shows what they have been doing the whole time, but it was pretty well the exact same thing the corrupt cops had been doing the whole time.

This film fell off the beaten path early and managed to stray further and further from its goal, which is to shock and awe, it just ended being a weird sexual tension movie. Not what I was expecting at all.