From Dusk Till Dawn

George Clooney should have stuck will this kind of role. He did fine in Out of Sight and Ocean's Eleven, but he really dominated this movie with a fury that we may never see again. Almost every line he delivers is memorable and that is not all Tarantino's doing. The rest of the cast is dominated by cool cameos and veteran cult and mainstream names. The exception being Ernest Liu who does a good job of holding his own. No Tarantino film would be complete without a good soundtrack. This one, as with Desperado, features songs by Tito and Tarantula. Although I have only heard four songs by them, I consider them one of my favorites. I will never forget what my parents told me after they watched this without me. "You sure can pick 'em," my mother blurted with distain. Do not make my mistake, watch it with your parents to see them squirm.

From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)

Review: How bout this? George Clooney in a different role? Yep. For once he tries something different.

From Dusk Till Dawn is something else. This is about two criminal brothers(Clooney and Tarantino)wind up taking a family hostage to make it across the Mexican border to a meeting point, a bar called the "Titty Twister". That's where the Gecko brothers are to meet another group of crooks.....at dawn. This bar is open from dusk till dawn....and is filled with vampires.

This movie starts off as something else at first. More like a gritty crime movie, then becomes a total spatter-fest. This isn't at all bad, just takes a total turn. The vampires here are a bunch of ugly as hell monsters. Think of the Evil Dead movies only the undead zombies and skeletons are vampires instead and that's the score with the very small supply of vampire slayers to take them on.

Like I say, if you are a fan of the Evil Dead movies, then this is the treat for you. It does not have the amount of silly humor like them, but has the gore nailed just right. The makeup effects are dead-on as well. This just happens to be more gritty than the Evil Dead.

The Last Word: I like it. Good for your October needs. Did I forget Salma Hayek and Cheech Marin? They are here as well. Good bloody fun.

Anyone trying to do a 'serious review' of this movie needs to lighten up. George Clooney and Quentin Tarantino are the Gecko brothers, two bad, bad men on their way to Mexico. Along the way they pick up a preacher played by Harvey Keitel and his two kids. They're supposed to meet a partner at a bar called The Titty Twister, and once they get there madness ensues. From there it takes a turn that many seem to find infuriating but I personally find highly entertaining. It's humming along like a typical Tarantino picture, and then- BOOM. Out of nowhere, it becomes all too clear that these two bad, bad men are not by a longshot the baddest in *this* bar. All of this can- and *will*, given the right attitude on the part of the viewers- read as a loving high-five to 70s zombie flicks, a homage to the campy fun of those movies. The tough guy dialog continues throughout, the gore level is astounding, and we see via Kate- the preacher's daughter, played by Juliette Lewis- that sometimes a p***ed-off virgin with a crossbow can more than hold her own. On top of that, it has a hella-cool biker-bar soundtrack and Salma Hayek in a bikini. What's not to like?

When the movie started, I was sold to a crime movie. The intro was the perfect setup for a Tarantino film. Two criminal brothers on the run trying to get to Mexico. Simple and brilliant.

The movie introduced two hot-headed brothers, so you know crap was gonna hit the fan and duels were gonna go down. It had everything I wanted: black comedy, crime, suspense, drama, thriller, even Salma Hayek.

At that point, everything was perfect... but then, the vampires appeared and the whole film had a 180 degree turn. It just didn't fit with the rest of the movie.

I'm not gonna lie, the different ways of how they killed the vampires were pretty cool and creative, but I felt like the first half of the movie was made by Tarantino and the second half was made by Rodriguez.

This movie had a lot of potential if it stuck with the first plot. I would've rated higher if they would've continued Gecko Brothers' adventure.

Coming into this I knew it would be action over content - after all it was directed by Robert Rodriguez. The fact that the script was written by Tarantino didn't really mean anything since I had gathered from various sources that this was Tarantino's homage to the "splatstick" genre (of Evil Dead, etc.) and as a result the script probably wasn't so hot compared to Pulp Fiction.

For the most part this is true. The first half of the movie IS really good in terms of cleverness and Tarantino-style stuff - good dialogue, interesting plot and unlikeable characters...unique. The second half, after they cross the border into Mexico - as others here have pointed out - becomes the Evil Dead segment of the film, where everything turns into some over-the-top, bizarre, gross-out vampire blood-'n-guts movie with bad special effects and cheesy scenes. (Albeit fun ones.) Some have complained that the transformation from seriousness to sudden vampire comic book content is too fast and the story would have been far more interesting had it been rooted in realism for its entire duration. Yes, and no. Rodriguez set out to make an homage to the spaghetti western/Evil Dead genre and did so. Tarantino's script is just the baseline for it all. It's like a bunch of friends got together and decided to make a movie - albeit friends with fairly good reputations as filmmakers. George Clooney, Harvey Keitel, Tarantino - not a bad cast! Had this been presented as an epic crime movie Tarantino would have helmed it. However due to the fact that he provided Rodriguez with the script and even performed a commentary track on the film's DVD release (something he does on none of his own directed films) just goes to show that Tarantino wasn't in it for the praise - he was in it for the fun and experience. Ditto for everyone else.

And in that regard this is a pretty fun movie. Like Rodriguez' DESPERADO, it's a guilty pleasure for viewers and cast - a bunch of highly esteemed actors get together and have a blast.

So no, this is not a great movie. The second half could be replaced with a more serious half and I think it would probably be one of the best thrillers ever if this was done. (Just imagine how great it could have been if it had been brought to a poetically justified ending with some sort of Gecko Brothers/law enforcement shootout a la Butch Cassidy/Bonnie and Clyde.) However I understand that's not what Rodriguez and crew set out to do with this movie - they just wanted to make an entertaining cult popcorn blockbuster flick.

And they succeeded. It's entertaining and hip and stylish. Recommended.