Pluskylang
Great Film overall
Matialth
Good concept, poorly executed.
CrawlerChunky
In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.
Bezenby
There sure are a lot of panes of glass destroyed in this PM production, involving a bunch of astronauts coming back from space infested with evil aliens hell bent on taking over the Earth. The leader of the aliens is Mike from Breaking Bad, but, you see, he's also still a good guy underneath.Their former Captain is out to track them down, along with his ex-wife (who also has an alien in her), some evil G-men, etc etc. It's a PM film, and therefore chock-full of car chases, explosions, and a rather large amount of people being thrown through panes of glass.I was expecting this to be your usual run of the mill 'people running around a warehouse being chased by aliens' film, that only really happens at the end (and via a flashback also). When the aliens do appear, they are rather, eh, Predator like, but I wasn't complaining as they laid waste to all the G-men.Throw in some mild gore, loads of gunfights, some not bad car chases, and plenty on nineties cheese and you have all you need to pass the time while you're waiting to die.One thing: In some scenes the alien contact lenses seem to have been inserted incorrectly.
George Clarke
Some people take films far too seriously!Like most reviewers or critics for this, Dark Breed.I picked this up for just a pound and highly enjoyed what I got for it. Action packed from the get-go, Dark Breed is a sci-fi rip off from many Hollywood blockbusters, but it doesn't care, because it's got just as much action, if not more, complete with some incredible stunt work from everyone involved!Jack Scalia is just great. He isn't a bad actor, he just seems to have gotten trapped in B-movie hell, yet never fails to deliver.His role in Dark Breed is probably one of his best, and he pulls off the action hero greatly!Far from perfect, but highly entertaining if you remember not to take it all so seriously. Action fans should definitely check it out, as I feel its being sold more as a sci-fi movie than anything else, yet features some amazing stunt work that deserves to be seen!!
Comeuppance Reviews
Nick Saxon (Scalia) is an ex-Special Forces Vietnam veteran (of course), so when a crew of astronauts returns infected with an alien virus, naturally Saxon is the first person the government calls to stop the spread of these body-snatching interlopers (wonder where they got that idea...). So Saxon and his team are working on stopping the astro-nuts, who predated the diaper-wearing astro-nut from the news of a few years ago by many years. But it's personal for Scalia, sorry, Saxon, because his buddy Joseph Shay (Banks) is one of the unfortunate astronauts taken over by an alien presence. Will Saxon don his Denim and Leather and come out victorious against the alien baddies? Judging by the fact that most of the scenes are too dark to see, Dark Breed is indeed an apt title. Or maybe they could have called it Dark Screen. Which leads us to the schizophrenic nature of this movie. The sci-fi scenes are dark (as if we haven't made that sufficiently clear yet), almost as if to hide their shame at making a sci-fi slog. But as for the action scenes, most of them are shot in daylight and are clearly and appropriately lit. That's normally the way with PM, but maybe they were experimenting with the "moodier" feel of the day, which was ahead of its time, as many movies and TV shows are severely underlit today. So if you're interested in seeing PM experiment with darkness, here is certainly a place to check that out. But we can't honestly say we're on board with it this time. Thank goodness for the plentiful muzzle flashes and blow-ups, because they provide the only light in many scenes.But the action is classic PM, with high-quality explosions, plenty of car stunts, and much gun-shooting. When it settles back into sci-fi territory, the movie inevitably slows down. But we're such PM fans, we had to see this movie, even though we don't like sci-fi slogs. But scenes like the highway chase where Scalia is riding along the back of a truck on an upturned satellite dish are vintage PM and start to turn the movie back in good graces. The scene is reminiscent of PM classic Last Man Standing (1996) and easily could have appeared in that gem. Plus you can actually see the scene, so it stands out from a lot of the rest of the proceedings. But the movie as a whole is a sci-fi actioner, kind of in the vein of Peacemaker (1990). So if you liked that, you might like this.Most of the dialogue consists of characters saying other characters' names repeatedly, almost reaching Airplane! (1980) levels at times. Of course, that's not when the aliens start making pig noises. Even though the aliens are supposed to be scary and malevolent, they sound like a mash up of Babe, Gordy and Arnold Ziffel in the midst of a slop fight. In other cast news Sal Landi, who has been in plenty of movies reviewed on this site, here plays "Zim" Zimmerman, also predating a certain news story. And fan favorite George "Buck" Flower even finds time to stop by in the midst of all the craziness. Tying it all together is Scalia, who looks like a stone statue carved of Treat Williams.In the end, this movie is at war with itself. It's sci-fi sloggery vs. tried-and-true action. If you don't mind your action punctuated by literally dark, boring scenes (or if you genuinely like sci-fi, which is also a possibility), you might be able to extract some enjoyment from Dark Breed.
Woodyanders
A group of astronauts led by Joseph Shay (a nicely villainous portrayal by the always reliable Jonathan Banks) return from a failed space mission infected by lethal evil alien parasites that plan on destroying the human race. It's up to rugged Captain Nick Saxon (a solid and credible performance by Jack Scalia) to stop them before it's too late. Capably directed with considerable rip-roaring gusto by Richard Pepin, with a constant swift pace, a compact script by Richard Preston, Jr., several exciting well-staged action set pieces (the wild and explosive outbursts of vehicular carnage are especially stirring and impressive), fluid, agile cinematography by Ken Blakey, a few effectively gross moments of grisly splatter, engaging and well-developed main characters, a shuddery, rattling, rousing score by Louis Febre, and gnarly reptilian extraterrestrial monsters, this handy dandy multi-genre combo romp rates as a perfectly enjoyable and unpretentious serving of low-budget straight-to-video entertainment. The sturdy acting from a bang-up cast qualifies as another substantial asset: Scalia brings some depth and humanity to his tough guy part, Lance LeGault is his usual pleasingly nasty self as hard-nosed military bigwig Cutter, plus there's cool supporting turns by Felton Perry and Sal Landi as two of the infected astronauts, Robin Curtis as compassionate physician Marian, fetching blonde Donna W. Scott as Saxon's spunky ex-wife Deborah, Billy Maddox as Cutter's mean right-hand man North, Carlos Carrasco as the shrewd, likable Fox, Cindy Ambuehl as the feisty Burgess, and the ubiquitous George "Buck" Flower in one of his standard grubby old bum roles. A neat little flick.
