Review of From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) by James M — 18 Dec 2013

The story's about two outlaws known as the Gecko brothers are trying to get over the US border. So, they take a family who owns a trailer home as hostage to sneak into Mexico and travel to a strip joint known as the Titty Twister, and it turns out that it's infested with vampires trying to kill them. Now they need to work together and survive the night.

I enjoyed the hell out of this movie. This was back when Robert Rodriguez isn't crowbarring in his exploitation styles of filming like he did with Planet Terror or Machete. Don't get me wrong, I like those movies. It just gets really crazy with the editing and how exaggerated the violence is in those movies. Also, some of the big time stars are phoning it in with their roles that their playing.

Anyway, George Clooney was awesome as Seth Gecko, either when he's calm or going around, beating people to a pulp. Before I have watched From Dusk Till Dawn, I didn't really like George Clooney and that's because the first movie that I saw him in was Batman & Robin. I know, I know, I was in my Batman/Tim Burton phase at the time when I was starting out as a movie buff.

Even though, Harvey Kietel plays the former priest, Jacob Fuller in this, he is still a badass in the movie, when he's killing vampires with a shotgun cross (a shotgun with a wooden pole to pull the trigger). Juliette Lewis was funny as his daughter, Kate Fuller and the actor played the son of Jacob was Ernest Liu, and this is the only movie I saw him in. And Fred Willaimson and Tom Savini who played some the bikers/truckers were awesome when they start killing some vampires.

Quintin Tarantino wrote the script to the movie and plays Richie Gecko. He was terrible in the role, but I love his screenplay and liked how it went from Crime/Thriller in the 1st half to Horror for the other half in a surprising transition. I just find it odd that he does commentary for all the films he wrote for and not the ones he directed.

All the cool dialogue is given to George Clooney's character, and find myself repeating his lines because they mostly sound memorable, coming from that actor.

I also want to make a special mention that we get to see Salma Hayek danceing half naked in the movie, but before she turns into a vampire of course. Speaking of the vampires, they are gruesome looking, and I do mean that in a good way. The special effects on the vampires are neat when they transform or when they explode from sunlight.

In conclusion, From Dusk Till Dawn isn't a movie you should take seriously. Because there are parts that people would laugh and giggle at like when we see Tom Savini's cockgun, Cheech Marin playing several characters in the movie, and using balloons filled with holy water to kill vampires. It's something that you would enjoy as it is with all its George Clooney goodness...and Robert Rodriguez goodness. I just wish they didn't had to make a prequel explaining the whole backstory behind Santanico Pandemonium and Razor Charlie.