By Clint Morris

Sometime mega-stars Richard Gere and Claire Danes team up for this unsettling but not entirely successful thriller centered on sex offenders.

Gere is a federal agent who’s investigating a paroled sex offender when a young girl goes missing. He’s convinced her disappearance has something to do with the man he’s investigating. Gere’s superiors do not believe the two are connected, and doesn’t think it’s worth looking into, but the fed manages to convince a colleague (Danes) to follow him in the sick underworld of pornography and perversions to look, just in case.

Gere’s character in the film is a little reminiscent of Fox Mulder, the character David Duchovny plays in ”The X-Files” – hyper-vigilant, slightly forlorn and determined to seek out the truth, even if others don’t want him to. But unfortunately, this chap’s case isn’t even half as interesting as anything Frank Spotnitz wrote for Mulder on all those years on ”X-Files” – or maybe it is, and writers Hans Lauer and Craig Mitchell just rushed themselves too much. Whatever the case, the film feels sluggish and as a consequence really struggles to hold your attention – not even its director, acclaimed Asian filmmaker Andy Lau (“Infernal Affairs”), could fix it.

Co-starring Ray Wise (TVs ”Twin Peaks”), KaDee Strickland (”Anacondas : The Hunt for the Blood Orchid”), and popstress Avril Lavinge (her acting debut), ”The Flock” is a bit of a misfire – one that probably won’t hurt Gere and Danes’ careers too much because it’s been quietly moved straight to video.

Extras

Sound-bites. What a lousy extra, hey!?