FROM DUSK TILL DAWN is really nothing more than the self-indulgent schlockfest pet project of compadres Rodriguez and Tarantino, complete with an odd change of narrative gears and some dialogue that the actors were miraculously able to deliver with a straight face. Yet in spite of all that, it's fun the way something like EVIL DEAD is fun - it's so fucking over the top, how could it not be?Admittedly, the first part of FROM DUSK TILL DAWN is the best, as professional bank robber and bad-ass muthafucker Seth Gecko (George Clooney) and his unstable brother Richie (Quentin Tarantino) are fleeing pursuit after robbing a bank and shooting several cops and bystanders along the way. They kidnap a motor-home driving ex-minister (Harvey Keitel) and his kids in order to sneak across the border into Mexico. When they arrive at a rowdy strip bar called The Titty Twister to meet Seth's contact, however, things take an abrupt shift that feels out of place, even when you know it's coming - everyone around them starts turning into vampires.
What follows is a bunch of shooting, staking, and squirting of holy water, as Gecko et al combat hordes of undead bloodsuckers. They are joined by a couple of the bar's surving patrons named Sex Machine and Frost, played hilariously by gore makeup effects master/sometimes actor Tom Savini and Blaxploitation cult hero Fred Williamson, respectively. At that point it just degenerates into an orgy of cheesy vampire effects, B-movie splatter, and lines so incredibly cheesy that Clooney should have gotten an Oscar nod just for being able to say them with the slightest gram of conviction. But the over-the-top action is nicely tempered with plenty of humor.
Oh, and Salma Hayek is nearly naked in it. Sadly, she had to wait until she played a character with a unibrow before she finally gave up all the goods. But hey, you can't have everything.Okay, so it's just a big vanity project for Quentin and his buddies. But hell, they obviously had fun making it, so why shouldn't we have fun watching it? I can think of worse things to sit through than an orgy of bullets, exploding corpses, and stripper vampires.
eFilmCritic.com: Australia's Largest Movie Review Database. Privacy Policy | HBS Inc. | | All data and site design copyright 1997-2013, HBS Entertainment, Inc.