A BREED APART

(director: Philippe Mora; screenwriter: Paul Wheeler; cinematographer: Geoffrey Stephenson; editor: Chris Lebenzon ; music: Maurice Gibb; cast: Rutger Hauer (Jim Malden), Donald Pleasence (J.P. Whittier), Powers Boothe (Mike Walker), Kathleen Turner (Stella Clayton), John Dennis Johnston (Charlie Peyton), Brion James (Huey Miller), Jane Bentzen (Amy Rollings); Runtime: 95; MPAA Rating: R; producer: John Daly/Derek Gibson; HBO video (Thorn EMI); 1984)

“Never makes much sense.”

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

A failed action drama helmed by Philippe Mora(“The Beast Within”/”Back in Business”/”Trouble In Molopolis“) and written by Paul Wheeler. It never makes much sense. It was shot in North Carolina.

Damaged goods Vietnam War vet Rutger Hauer is the crazed haughty recluse conservationist on a life mission to protect the eggs of the endangered bald eagle. Donald Pleasence is a crazed millionaire egg collector, who is obsessed with obtaining a few of the eagle’s eggs from the remote North Carolina island that’s owned by Hauer. Powers Boothe is a mountain climber, posing as a magazine photographer, who is hired to steal the eggs. Boothe changes his mind when he meets the attractive island storekeeper Kathleen Turner, and he teams up with Hauer to derail Pleasence’s theft.

The subplots are undeveloped (supposedly as a result of one of the 4 reels missing after sent from location shooting in N.C. to the Los Angeles studio, which forced re-doing parts of the film in a chaotic way.

The pic implodes in absurdity when Hauer rides his white horse across the island in pirate dress and is holding a crossbow. That odd scene is reason enough to see it for those film buffs who enjoy bad films for all the wrong reasons. For the more serious viewer, the location photography of Geoffrey Stephenson is awesome.

REVIEWED ON 9/11/2015 GRADE: C+ 

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