A disappointingly routine action thriller with an interesting premise in that conditioning - used in laboratories to shape the behaviour of animals, the most famous case being that of Pavlov's dogs - is used on children to transform them into ruthless murderers. Unfortunately the premise is only a set-up for some stale antics involving a captured killer, and his subsequent escape and chase. By the end of the film we've gone through the run-of-the-mill confessionals and surprises but the film only impresses us during the frenetic action sequences, which are well-choreographed for a television music and enlivened by some pulse-pounding music. The opening in particular is a real showstopper with a public assassination attempt followed by an explosive double suicide. There's also some cool antics involving a train and a helicopter which makes for one hell of a cliffhanger.Unfortunately the film becomes less interesting as it goes along, packed full of plot contrivances and attempts at mood which aren't too successful. It ends in a final shoot-out which really isn't that interesting and a bit of an anticlimax. The D-grade casting doesn't help this film much either. Firstly we have the bland straight-to-video man Andrew McCarthy as the hero, Ben Carroway. No matter what role he plays, good or bad, McCarthy just seems to be so damn boring in every film he appears in that you can't care less about him. The much better and under-appreciated actor Robert Patrick (TERMINATOR 2) is relegated to a useless comic-relief irritating sidekick type role when in reality he would have been much better as the hero. Portia de Rossi makes for a sassy and beautiful love interest/female lead but her character is given nowhere to go and extraneous to the plot. Old-timer Nick Mancuso is the mad scientist bad guy but he plays it low-key, with none of the overacting you might expect from the role. A BREED APART is only worth watching if you're really stuck for something on telly, as the couple of good action sequences it does have are surprisingly well-staged, but as a film it's a failure.

I ended up watching this movie because well there was nothing else on and I recommend watching paint dry, grass grow, anything in fact other than this movie. The premise is intriguing enough in the beginning, there are assassins running around, and they are tied to this weird behavioral scientist. But before you get to the conditioning, you get perhaps the worst car chase in history, they appear to be going the speed limit, not really riveting action. The action scenes are boring, the plot relatively see through, you can guess most of what will happen. The ending however is truly ridiculous, as everything comes together in what has to be the stupidest conspiracy story ever. My recommendation don't waste your time.

First off I'm a huge Andrew McCarthy fan and I usually like anything he puts out. This movie is a damn good movie. You got the premise of the perfect assassins which they show in the beginning why they are. Andrew plays a FBI agent who gets personally involved with the case and does good at it. Also having Robert Patrick along for the ride was great too, he played the cool guy con friend of Andrew. To top it off you also get Nick Mancuso to play the wacko behavorial scientist. All those guys were great and so was the chic in it but I don't remember her name. Plot is a lot better than most action movies and there's even a little comedy at times. This movie will make you feel for the people in it and therefore makes it more than just a shoot em up movie. When it does have action though the action scenes are grand. I don't know what's up with the other reviewers but trust me this is a great flic and if you like Andrew McCarthy then it's a must see.

I believe that I just watched this movie on HBO (11/13)under the name "Perfect Assassins" The following is the copy from the DirectTV description:Other. Andrew McCarthy, Robert Patrick, Nick Mancuso. (1998) Ruthless terrorists battle an FBI specialist and may be linked to his past. (AC,AL,V) Not Rated - ContentBasically, someone has been turning children into killers and conditioning them as animals in some bizarre experiment. Nick Mancuso also stars in this movie as the antagonist, a psychotic behavioral scientist. Quite a few implausible scenes if you could buy into the premise itself. Some decent action but all in all not a very well done movie.It's something to watch when you find you have 50 channels and nothing on. That's how I found it. Then I got curious about the leading lady. She now plays Nell on Ally McBeal. When I realized who she was, that pretty much served as the only excitement this movie offered.There was a vague effort at an X-files-esque conspiracy ending that failed miserably. Still nothing is as bad as "Yor-The Hunter From The Future", my vote for worst picture ever.