THE BREED offers many good things: An interesting spin on the vampire story, beautiful Budapest locales (despite the obvious presence of fog machines), and striking visuals. The problem with this film that keeps messing the story up like like someone jamming on the break pedal every few minutes is one of the two leads, Bokeem Woodbine. He is very miscast here, his character is made to be brutish and every line of his dialogue filled with profanity to the point of the viewer starting to notice this, rather than let the cussing blend in and flow with the delivery (gosh, even his thug character in FREEWAY from 1996 was nicer than Grant). I started to become very distracted by these faults and by the time Lucy (played by Bai Ling) started a romantic interest in Grant (Woodbine), I found it hard to believe she'd find any reason to like him. By making Grant so grating, it makes his partnership with the vampire cop Grey (Adrian Paul) come off as something out of a cliche buddy film.
For those not having seen it yet, Grant loses his parter when he is killed by a vampire. It turns out that there are about 4,000 vampires in existence, and there is a plan to integrate them into society ("coming out of the closet," so to speak). The killer vampire is of course intent on wrecking this plan, and at the same time the government is planning on releasing an airborne virus that will wipe out the vampires. Grant is partnered with vampire Grey to track down the rogue vampire.
Despite the major flaws, other qualities of THE BREED helped save it from being a loss. The visual "near future" design with a nod to Terry Gilliam's BRAZIL are intentional and quite fun, with use of old cars (like DARK CITY) that all seem to be very nicely waxed though the buildings are neglected (to the point of leaves all over the interiors of buildings...how did all those leaves wind up on Lucy's staircase??). I do tend to wonder after all if these old cars really were a lot more reliable, as there are no traces of current vehicles seen anywhere as "old" cars! There are some surprisingly witty lines delivered, like when Lucy tells a vampire to stop the Anne Rice theatrics, and when a man refusing to divulge the evil plan to Grant says "You are not James Bond and I am not Blofeld..." though the phrase "This is not the movies" is used a couple times too many when vampires try to debunk myths Grant thought applied to a situation. During the action sequences, at least there were reasons the vampires could leap into the air and fire weapons, and they didn't linger too long there as in the Matrix-influenced action films. This kept it from becoming tiresome to watch (as the long, drawn out fighting sequences in Matrix Reloaded, for example).
As a rental or bargain priced purchase, THE BREED is worth a look. If you can tolerate Bokeem Woodbine's miscasting and annoying character, the rest of the film's qualities will surely entertain.
For those not having seen it yet, Grant loses his parter when he is killed by a vampire. It turns out that there are about 4,000 vampires in existence, and there is a plan to integrate them into society ("coming out of the closet," so to speak). The killer vampire is of course intent on wrecking this plan, and at the same time the government is planning on releasing an airborne virus that will wipe out the vampires. Grant is partnered with vampire Grey to track down the rogue vampire.
Despite the major flaws, other qualities of THE BREED helped save it from being a loss. The visual "near future" design with a nod to Terry Gilliam's BRAZIL are intentional and quite fun, with use of old cars (like DARK CITY) that all seem to be very nicely waxed though the buildings are neglected (to the point of leaves all over the interiors of buildings...how did all those leaves wind up on Lucy's staircase??). I do tend to wonder after all if these old cars really were a lot more reliable, as there are no traces of current vehicles seen anywhere as "old" cars! There are some surprisingly witty lines delivered, like when Lucy tells a vampire to stop the Anne Rice theatrics, and when a man refusing to divulge the evil plan to Grant says "You are not James Bond and I am not Blofeld..." though the phrase "This is not the movies" is used a couple times too many when vampires try to debunk myths Grant thought applied to a situation. During the action sequences, at least there were reasons the vampires could leap into the air and fire weapons, and they didn't linger too long there as in the Matrix-influenced action films. This kept it from becoming tiresome to watch (as the long, drawn out fighting sequences in Matrix Reloaded, for example).
As a rental or bargain priced purchase, THE BREED is worth a look. If you can tolerate Bokeem Woodbine's miscasting and annoying character, the rest of the film's qualities will surely entertain.