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Breed, The
Columbia/Tri-Star // R // November 20, 2001
List Price: $24.98 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Movie:
After "Blade" was originally released, it seemed as if the vampire genre was going to be restarted once again, as although the picture had some faults, it was so wonderfully atmospheric and occasionally powerful that it became a success. Miramax attempted a version marketed towards teens with "Dracula 2000" and it was such an utter failure that it seemed to take the genre two steps backwards for the two steps forward that "Blade" took it. Now, "The Breed" attempts to be "Blade: Redux" and, although the style is certainly there, the substance is somewhat lacking.
The film takes place in the future, where FBI agent Steven Grant (Bookeem Woodbine) has been assigned to track down a rogue vampire. Paired with a new agent (Adrian Paul), he's sent to track him down. Sounds simple enough, but his partner happens to be a vampire, as well, and once they meet up with Lucy (Bai Ling), he begins to fall for a vampire, something he thought he'd never do.
As for "The Breed", it's certainly not lacking in atmosphere. Cinematographer Chris Squires attempts to do his version of "Blade" cinematographer Theo van de Sande's dark, gritty and stylized look and more often than not, he succeeds in creating a look that's more than simply a music video. Strong production design and interesting locations (the film was shot in Hungary) also add to the look and feel of the picture.
There's even some decent action, as the film's few main action sequences are nicely choreographed and expertly filmed. It's when the characters actually start talking that the problems arise. Many of the performers do do their best, but for many scenes, the dialogue seemed to consistent mostly of four-letter words. While I have no problem with four-letter words, they were used way too much here and it got tedious after a while.
The plot remained a little more confusing than it should have been, with supporting characters that are shuffled in and out of the film a bit randomly. It also remains rather difficult to care about the characters or what happens to them. Stylish, but not really new or well-written, "Breed" might work for some as a rental, but no more than that.
The DVD
VIDEO: Columbia/Tristar Home Video presents "Breed" in both 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen and full-frame. Given the picture's elaborate visuals complete with smoke and all that jazz, you would think that it would be somewhat difficult to cleanly translate the picture to DVD. As they usually do though, the studio has succeeded in deliverng the film's stylish visuals cleanly and with only minor flaws. Sharpness and detail are very good throughout, as although the film's visual style makes for some slightly softer moments, these seemed to be intentional to the film's style.
The film often looked lightly grainy, but this also seemed intentional to the film's look. A few other minor print flaws, including a few minor groups of brief specks and a mark or two, also appeared, but didn't cause any distraction. Light edge enhancement was seen once or twice, but didn't cause any major concern, nor did a trace or two of pixelation.
The film's color scheme is often beautifully muted, with dark greens and reds often standing out. Although colors certainly didn't look natural, they did look accurate and were portrayed without any flaws such as smearing. English, French, Spanish, Portguese, Chinese, Korean and Thai subtitles are included.
SOUND: The film is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1. The audio is impressive when need be, but otherwise rather inconsistent. Surrounds come into play reasonably well during the action sequences, but are somewhat more effective in some other instances where they provide ambience. There's even a few sections where voices come from the surrounds. Audio quality remained generally enjoyable, as the score came through pleasantly, but given the deep techno-ish nature of the music, I'd expect a slightly less flat quality. Dialogue came through clearly, as well. Overall, this was a more effective and agressive soundtrack than I'd expected from a straight-to-video release, but it wasn't without some minor concerns.
MENUS:: Basic, non-animated menus that essentially use film-themed images and cover art.
EXTRAS::
Commentary: This is a lively commentary from director Michael Oblowitz and actor Adrian Paul, who seem as if they're having a grand old time discussing the making of the picture. They also do a fine job mixing up their chat, alternating between talk about some of the difficulties during shooting, themes and technical elements about the look of the picture and how it was achieved. A good commentary.
Also: Trailers for "The Breed", "The Forsaken", "Bram Stoker's Dracula", "John Carpenter's Vampires" and "Hollow Man" are included, as are filmographies.
Final Thoughts: "The Breed" is visually impressive, rather energetic and contains some good action, but the characters are thinly written and the dialogue is bad enough to be rather annoying. Columbia/Tristar presents the film with fine audio/video quality and a few decent supplements. Fans of the genre may want to check it out as a rental.
After "Blade" was originally released, it seemed as if the vampire genre was going to be restarted once again, as although the picture had some faults, it was so wonderfully atmospheric and occasionally powerful that it became a success. Miramax attempted a version marketed towards teens with "Dracula 2000" and it was such an utter failure that it seemed to take the genre two steps backwards for the two steps forward that "Blade" took it. Now, "The Breed" attempts to be "Blade: Redux" and, although the style is certainly there, the substance is somewhat lacking.
The film takes place in the future, where FBI agent Steven Grant (Bookeem Woodbine) has been assigned to track down a rogue vampire. Paired with a new agent (Adrian Paul), he's sent to track him down. Sounds simple enough, but his partner happens to be a vampire, as well, and once they meet up with Lucy (Bai Ling), he begins to fall for a vampire, something he thought he'd never do.
As for "The Breed", it's certainly not lacking in atmosphere. Cinematographer Chris Squires attempts to do his version of "Blade" cinematographer Theo van de Sande's dark, gritty and stylized look and more often than not, he succeeds in creating a look that's more than simply a music video. Strong production design and interesting locations (the film was shot in Hungary) also add to the look and feel of the picture.
There's even some decent action, as the film's few main action sequences are nicely choreographed and expertly filmed. It's when the characters actually start talking that the problems arise. Many of the performers do do their best, but for many scenes, the dialogue seemed to consistent mostly of four-letter words. While I have no problem with four-letter words, they were used way too much here and it got tedious after a while.
The plot remained a little more confusing than it should have been, with supporting characters that are shuffled in and out of the film a bit randomly. It also remains rather difficult to care about the characters or what happens to them. Stylish, but not really new or well-written, "Breed" might work for some as a rental, but no more than that.
The DVD
VIDEO: Columbia/Tristar Home Video presents "Breed" in both 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen and full-frame. Given the picture's elaborate visuals complete with smoke and all that jazz, you would think that it would be somewhat difficult to cleanly translate the picture to DVD. As they usually do though, the studio has succeeded in deliverng the film's stylish visuals cleanly and with only minor flaws. Sharpness and detail are very good throughout, as although the film's visual style makes for some slightly softer moments, these seemed to be intentional to the film's style.
The film often looked lightly grainy, but this also seemed intentional to the film's look. A few other minor print flaws, including a few minor groups of brief specks and a mark or two, also appeared, but didn't cause any distraction. Light edge enhancement was seen once or twice, but didn't cause any major concern, nor did a trace or two of pixelation.
The film's color scheme is often beautifully muted, with dark greens and reds often standing out. Although colors certainly didn't look natural, they did look accurate and were portrayed without any flaws such as smearing. English, French, Spanish, Portguese, Chinese, Korean and Thai subtitles are included.
SOUND: The film is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1. The audio is impressive when need be, but otherwise rather inconsistent. Surrounds come into play reasonably well during the action sequences, but are somewhat more effective in some other instances where they provide ambience. There's even a few sections where voices come from the surrounds. Audio quality remained generally enjoyable, as the score came through pleasantly, but given the deep techno-ish nature of the music, I'd expect a slightly less flat quality. Dialogue came through clearly, as well. Overall, this was a more effective and agressive soundtrack than I'd expected from a straight-to-video release, but it wasn't without some minor concerns.
MENUS:: Basic, non-animated menus that essentially use film-themed images and cover art.
EXTRAS::
Commentary: This is a lively commentary from director Michael Oblowitz and actor Adrian Paul, who seem as if they're having a grand old time discussing the making of the picture. They also do a fine job mixing up their chat, alternating between talk about some of the difficulties during shooting, themes and technical elements about the look of the picture and how it was achieved. A good commentary.
Also: Trailers for "The Breed", "The Forsaken", "Bram Stoker's Dracula", "John Carpenter's Vampires" and "Hollow Man" are included, as are filmographies.
Final Thoughts: "The Breed" is visually impressive, rather energetic and contains some good action, but the characters are thinly written and the dialogue is bad enough to be rather annoying. Columbia/Tristar presents the film with fine audio/video quality and a few decent supplements. Fans of the genre may want to check it out as a rental.
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