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Bill Pullman, Julia Ormond, Pell James, Ryan Simpkins, Cheri Oteri ... see more see more... , French Stewart , Kent Harper , Michael Ironside , Charlie Newmark , Mac Miller , Anita Smith , Josh Strait , Kent Wolkowski , David Gane , Gill Gayle , Hugh Dillon , Caroline Aaron , Jennifer Miles , Gerald Layton Young , D.R. Haney , Angela Lamarsh , Shannon Jardine

An FBI agent on the trail of a serial killer attempts to capture the madman with a little assistance from his would-be victims in director Jennifer Chambers Lynch's supernatural police thriller. FBI a... read more read more...gents Elizabeth Anderson (Julia Ormond) and Sam Hallaway (Bill Pullman) are on the trail of some killers when they arrive in a small desert town to investigate a vicious mass shooting on the highway. The witnesses are an overzealous cop, an unreliable junkie, and an eight-year-old girl. For some reason agents Anderson and Hallaway can't comprehend, the pieces of the puzzle just don't seem to fit together. Later, when the minute details concealed by each witness finally start coming into focus, the two agents discover that sometimes the truth comes at a very substantial cost. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Flixster Users

43% liked it

31,180 ratings

Critics

55% liked it

71 critics

R, 1 hr. 38 min.

Directed by: Jennifer Chambers Lynch

Release Date: June 26, 2009

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DVD Release Date: August 18, 2009

Stats: 1,546 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (1,546)

  • jmanard52
    August 22, 2010
    jmanard52
    Wow a decent thriller with a dark slick murder mystery. If i say anything else it could give away the whole mystery. So instead I will just say watch this one.
  • MrMarakai
    July 17, 2011
    MrMarakai
    Jennifer Chambers Lynch (daughter of the great trancendental David Lynch) made her directorial debut in 1993 with "Boxing Helena". That film recieved some scathing reviews and if my memory serves it was an absolute turkey. However, this second shot at directing is a vast improvem... read moreent.
    Hunting a vicious serial killer, FBI agents Hallaway (Bill Pullman) and Anderson (Julia Ormond) pitch up at a police station to question three survivors and the cops who saved them. But with the stories failing to match up, can anyone be trusted - and is anybody safe?
    You can tell that Jennifer Lynch's auteur filmmaker father has had a heavy influence on his daughter. She employs a similiar eerie atmosphere; similiar characters with odd, unexplained behaviour and similar small, remote american settings like "Twin Peaks", or "Wild at Heart". Although she's still a far cry from the genius or intelligence of her father, she can be proud of what she's crafted with this one. The performances are spot on from a cast that has obviously put their trust in their director and Lynch's visual style complements the cast. It's not without it's flaws however, and sometimes verges on implausibility but I really liked it. Certainly not for all tastes but it's very effective and disturbing feeling of dread lingers long after viewing it. The fact that it's set in a deserted rural American town adds to the lonliness and fear from the characters and the audience.
    In only her second film, it looks like Jennifer Lynch still has a bit to learn but with this unusual serial-killer thriller it looks like she may still have something to offer, despite living in her fathers shadow.
  • itsjustme2004
    October 14, 2010
    itsjustme2004
    Holy cow!! You have no idea how many times I almost turned this movie off because I thought that it was stupid. Bill Pullmans weirdness, the off the wall cops, and just the strangeness of everything that was going on. Then all of a sudden everything came together and made sense. ... read moreI went from thinking that this was some weird lame butt movie, to thinking just the opposite. So...moral of the story, give it about an hour and you have an awesome movie!! haha.
  • deano
    August 3, 2010
    deano
    Weird thriller! It's a pretty raw movie and from the obscure opening on to the landscape shots, introduction of the characters until the unfolding of the stories begins it's interesting. Basically the movie is about a couple of FBI agents (Bill Pullman & Julia Ormond) who are int... read moreerrogating three survivors of a bloody crime and trying to find out what happened. The way the story is told through the eyes of the different survivors who all got something to hide and therefore all tell different stories while the real occurrences are shown is really interesting and tense. The characters, especially the twisted corrupt cops, the little girl and the drug-addict girl are also great and everyone in that backwoods police station where the interrogations take place delivers. Funny thing is... to me the two FBI agents are the least interesting although they are the main characters.
  • RCCLBC
    June 17, 2010
    RCCLBC
    A (mostly) pleasant surprise.

    On a postive note the film is nicely shot and the story told in an interesting way. On the down side, most of the characters were painfully bad caricatures and the big "twist" was no surprise by the time it happened.

    Julia Ormond was brilliant... read more. and it was nice to see French Stewart (almost unrecognizable in the role) and Cheri Oteri get a chance to show their chops in something other then a sitcom.

    There is a "alternate ending" in the "Extras" section of the DVD that I almost like better then the one that was used. Worth checking out.
  • ceWEBrity
    April 29, 2010
    ceWEBrity
    Hot off the success of her widely-loved Boxing Helena, Jennifer Lynch actually manages to nicely acquit herself with this dark, intriguing, sickly humorous thriller. Shame about the final third; while the movie still remains watchable, and there are some deliciously evil kinks in... read more the formula, its predictability means that you really don't care where it goes anymore. If you're bothered by predictable twist endings...well, don't pass it over, because there's still a lot to like about this film. By far the strongest point of Surveillance is its beyond-the-call acting. Lynch has clearly inherited a gift for getting organic, off-kilter performances out of her actors; awkward characters such as the secretary that would have been embarrassing and useless in other movies only seem to bolster Surveillance's odd little world. Julia Ormond and Bill Pullman, two rather vanilla actors, are handed some especially interesting duties here. Initially they just seem like plot pushers, but they have great interplay which becomes all the stronger as the movie proceeds. The supporting players are all uniformly excellent - Lynch gets surprising dramatic work out of French Stewart AND Cheri Oteri, of all people. She deserves some sort of award. Finally, the movie is peppered with gallows humor, including one (fantastic) scene in the middle where you constantly vacillate between disgust, horror and bemusement. Perhaps one of the best examples of this is when a police officer starts talking to a coked-out woman about his partner's recently deceased family, and she is visibly fighting to keep herself from laughing; it's perverse and kind of cruel, yes, but the execution is so perfect. You're legitimately scared for the character.

    The plot itself is nothing new. It's basically just a more violent Rashomon. The device still works well when utilized properly, and Lynch bounces us between the past and the present enough to maintain a sense of mystery, but not so much that we get annoyed. The disparities between each character's rendition of the tale and what we see actually happened enliven the story and enrich their personalities. Surveillance isn't anything special, at the end of the day, but it's a proficiently made film that elevates its generic roots. If you have a taste for the dark, unusual and moderately fucked-up, this is definitely a movie to catch.

    Also, if you dislike cops, this will absolutely boil your blood, so be warned.
  • bbcfloridabound
    February 15, 2010
    bbcfloridabound
    Took me about 25 minutes into the movie to figure out the Bad guys from the Good Guys, Pretty Gory in Parts. Child actor Ryan Simpkins Child actress gave a excellent 5 star performance. Michael Ironside (Best in Scanners) did his normal role which was good. Not a lot of suspense ... read morejust a lot of blood. I will not give away the ending you will have to get that on your own, its ok. Only worth 31/2 stars. A rental.
  • Stinger839
    January 29, 2010
    Stinger839
    I thought this was a brilliant film. I first saw this two weeks ago and have since watched it five times, but am still unsure what all I have or need to say in a general review of it without giving anything away.

    There are some minor plot holes, but the acting is perfect with so... read moreme unforgettable performances by Julia Ormond and Bill Pullman. This is the second film by Jennifer Lynch, the first since she has reached true adulthood, and I can tell that she has certainly matured as a storyteller and not at all lost her penchant for darkness. Reacting to the film's arc, her father David Lynch described his daughter as "one sick bitch" for making this film. I don't think there's any better endorsement.

    I don't want to give ANY spoilers so I won't write much more than "SEE THIS!", but would LOVE TO DISCUSS this flick's particulars with anyone.


    BELOW IS A SPOILER
    SPOILER
    SPOILER SPOILER
    SPOILER BELOW


    SPOILER
    "That's Fucked Up" Highlight:
    strangling the junkie girl and then sucking out her last breath as she asphyxiates
  • mjgildea
    January 20, 2010
    mjgildea
    The first act of Surveillance had me convinced that Jennifer Lynch was going to spew out a mosaic of her famous father's bag of tricks and as long as I had a giggle or few like her father rarely fails to supply I was going to be okay with that. There was enough goofy randomness a... read morend curious unexplained pauses worthy of anything David Lynch did in the past 20 years but then Jennifer Lynch had to go and explain the whole goddamned thing with a twist I saw coming a mile off less than halfway through the movie. Bill Pullman is great throughout (especially at the end) and his chemistry with the normally boring (but not boring here) Julia Ormond was actually great. Surveillance turned my normal wariness of cops into full on disdain after the disturbing turn the movie makes but overall I felt like I was getting a piss poor consolation prize until David Lynch decides to make another movie. The half-assed Rashamon plot device works to a point but I was just waiting for the goddamned thing to end once I figured out the twist. And I rarely figure out the twist...
  • Deano78
    December 7, 2009
    Deano78
    A pretty decent straight to DVD thriller with a familiar cast. It's quite entertaining but really relies on the twist, which is good but most film fans will probably work out early on. Still a nice change from the norm.

View All Surveillance Reviews

Critic Reviews

Jason Anderson
July 24, 2009
Jason Anderson, Toronto Star

Pullman's striking performance here is undermined by Lynch's overreliance on those same grisly shock tactics, as well as a script that fails to capitalize on a promising premise and then swiftly colla... Full Review

James Adams
July 24, 2009
James Adams, Globe and Mail

The film's a failure. Full Review

Lisa Kennedy
July 17, 2009
Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post

In this long-time-coming sophomore film, Lynch exercises powers of her own. She gets repellant, seductive, sympathetic performances from her actors. Ormond and Pullman are frightfully good at teasing ... Full Review

Stephen Whitty
July 3, 2009
Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger

Its mad killers may wear masks. But the real and cheap disguise here is the film's own -- an exploitation shocker trying to pass itself off as art. Full Review

Owen Gleiberman
July 3, 2009
Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly

A grubby, disturbing serial-killer mystery, a kind of blood-simple Rashomon. Full Review

Mick LaSalle
July 3, 2009
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

The most enjoyable way to watch Surveillance -- 'enjoyable' in the relative sense -- is to take its awfulness for granted and pay attention to everything Bill Pullman does. Full Review

Kyle Smith
June 26, 2009
Kyle Smith, New York Post

Ether a ludicrously bad movie or a parody of same. Either way, it's pretty funny. Full Review

Elizabeth Weitzman
June 26, 2009
Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News

Every so often, you come upon a movie so jaw-droppingly wrong, you wonder if your eyes are deceiving you. Full Review

Manohla Dargis
June 26, 2009
Manohla Dargis, New York Times

A would-be transgression that tries to squeeze dark laughs from the spectacle of human suffering.

Ben Mankiewicz
June 22, 2009
Ben Mankiewicz, At the Movies

When Surveillance is good, it's a gory, pleasurable ride. When it's not -- it's just gory. But more often than not, it delivers on the camp. Full Review

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

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Surveillance Trivia

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