| Product: |
The Breed (DVD) |
| Date: |
17/02/08 (69 review reads) |
| Rating: |
 |
Advantages: Good dog training, fast moving story
Disadvantages: Lots of silly and implausible factors
Luke and Jenny are cruising around on their luxury yacht when they notice a beautiful island seemingly forgotten. As Luke ties up the boat Jenny ventures further inland and discovers a deserted building, the building seems sinister and has redish tints, could this be blood? In her search for other people Jenny finds something else.
Into the fray come five students, one a virgin, and one a pilot, oh please! Having landed on the island two of the students whom are brothers John and Matt share their inherited island with the other three, they get drunk and have fun. The discovery of a puppy brings joy to Sarah one of the students, but Noah soon realises this puppy is not quite right. But it's when it tries to escape that things turn bad, Sarah is attacked by a ferocious German Sheppard, and then her mood begins to change.
For me The Breed did not start well, a production of First Look Studios; their movies have pivotal stars but usually little in the way of plot. But this fact was soon redeemed by the first credited name "A Wes Craven Production"; I would have course given the movie a chance, the name Wes Craven just helped things along. Of course I never took into account the awful Red Eye.
The movie starts flawed because the students don't look like students, I appreciate there is adult learning; but all of these seem too old to be playing the youthful students they claim to be. The main lead is Michelle Rodriques ex Lost star and real life jailbird; this movie appears to be post Lost, and I'm sure anyone who saw her in that would agree she looks far too old to be a teen student. With the exception of Noah played by Hill Harper they all look like they are hitting their 30's if not racing past. So as I said it creates some initial flaws, trying to believe that one of these is a virgin adds further fuel to an already unconvincing fire, especially when she stinks of sex (in a physical sense of course).
Now I need to knock some of the bad criticism I appear to be giving the movie on the head, because it's actually a pretty confident little horror movie. The Breed has excellent special effects, some cringeworthy moment of pain on our cast, and a nice flow that makes the first hour pass in what seems like 20 minutes, I was taken aback when I realised how far through the movie I was.
You get to a stage where the silliness of the movie passes you by, including the dogs storming a sea plane, cutting its ropes and sending it out to sea; and you really believe that you're onto a good thing, but then fate steps in and mucks up the movies end. From giving an element of doubt, you're delivered to a place where pre-death monologues rule and you find yourself in highly predictable bad horror movie territory, maybe the money ran out.
The dog effects are great, they are really well trained, and the attacks on humans look very realistic. Those that are dog lovers though might not want to watch this movie, because it contains a number of scenes where the humans fight back against the dogs. Although no animals were actually harmed during the movies production, dog lovers will be disturbed by the scenes. There is one rather silly scene where the puppy gets angry and its face is given the computer generated treatment to make it seem violent, the result of this is laughable.
I have been a bit sick for a few days, hence no review writing, all I had was an ear infection but it rendered me useless, the crew on The Breed however all get injuries and seem able to carry on like normal. Two get bitten, and one gets an arrow through their leg; yet the perfectly uninjured one is the first to fall.
The Breed looks the part, and I guess if I were not reviewing a movie in my category of choice, horror then I might not be so critical, unfortunately I am and the horror element of this movie is just too much like other movies, with dogs being the attackers rather than humans or monsters.
Special Features:
The making of documentary is more of an extended trailer but it does pose one very god question, and that is exactly how much input did Wes Craven have on the movie, because to me it seems that he might quite literally have been a name to add value to the piece, as is often the case.
There is then the obligatory photo gallery filled with photos from both sides of the camera.
The Breed is still high on the sale price £13.99 being the cheapest new price I could find from either Play.com or sendit. This is far too high for a movie of this standard and I strongly recommend a rental rather than a purchase.
Spencer Hawken 02/08
Summary: OK to watch but don't buy it.
|
|
