Raptors' Surveillance

I sat down to watch Surveillance this week and kind of ended with mixed feelings. Directed by Jennifer Chambers Lynch daughter of director David Lynch, she has taken to being behind the camera just like her father. Surveillance centres on a police station in a rural area of the US where some killers have been going on a spree and which the authorities have been unable to catch. In walk two FBI agents played by Bill Pullman and Julia Ormond. They rock up and begin ruffling the feathers of the local authorities at the station and while investigating they begin to find out that no one is who they seem. Dum Dum daaaah! What else is new.

Dam kids graffitied, the ground again. Better call for backup.

I liked Bill Pullmans character, Sam Hallaway. He seemed gruff and distant and focused on the job and Pullman pulled this off well, excuse the pun. Ormond also did well with her character which was quite believable problem was the last 30 or so mins of the movie where the characters all reveal themselves, not to put any spoilers, but the believability kinds of comes into question at that point and I kind of lost interest in them.

The movie plays with flash backs to several groups. A couple who are out on a drug buying trip. Stephanie, a girl (played beautifully by Ryan Simpkins) with her family which isn’t as happy as seems and two police officers with dreams of being heroes are crossing into vigilantism. The groups slowly come together as their worms surface. This is actually the best part of the film. The character depths are shown and flaws revealed but you get to like them. It all comes to a head where the group meets the killers and this is where it became a bit contrived for me. Maybe I’m a little jaded with these sorts of films maybe I’ve seen it all before. I managed to pick the reveal for the two FBI agents 20mins before it actually happened and I’m pretty sure most people will. It was reasonably obvious.

Back at the station the FBI agents are interviewing the survivors of this encounter with the killers. Tensions arise between cops, victims and FBI with parties begging to act suspiciously. The problem I had at the end is what often happens. The killers are shown to be the super villain like geniuses that are always thinking 10 steps ahead of everyone else. Sure I don’t mind that every now and then but in this case it really irked me. One of the cops was this snap shot shooter. Could take out a car tire moving at 100miles from 50m yet at then end he couldn’t shoot a person in the head/body from 3m away. WTF is that! Anyway script issues aside Jennifer Lynch did a great job with direction and she does have a great eye for the camera. Maybe it’s to do with her dads mentoring, maybe it’s cause and effect, maybe it’s karma who knows. It all fit in very nicely.

So in ending, this isn’t a bad movie. I could have been a great movie for me if it wasn’t for a few issues I had with the script. I could be a little hard on it but it is watchable. I’d give this one a 6.5/10. Oh, not a booby to be seen. Dam you Lynch!!