The perennial problem with film buffs is the belief that filmmakers are fine wines. That, due to the name of such and such, said film will undoubtedly be good. Oh, they'll say: `it's a Van Sant, circa 1989' or a `Spielberg.' To an outsider to this particular argot, one would almost find the Napa Valley and the San Fernando Valley indistinguishable… both homes of fine craftsman of a product of whateverness. As From Dusk Till Dawn proves, this is not the case.
Both a `Rodriguez' and a `Tarantino,' still manages to be a fairly unengaging vintage filled with little humor, a go-nowhere plot, and a vampire mythology so far off the norm that From Dusk Till Dawn's only redeeming value is in self-parody. And call me someone who doesn't appreciate Tarantino's or Rodriguez's innate genius, but said self-parody fails to do anything for me.
Of course, this in and of itself isn't the really disappointing factor in >From Dusk till Dawn. Schlock horror in and of itself makes for interesting viewing and psuedo intelligent insults. From Dusk till Dawn, however, doesn 't choose to go campy or go artsy. It does both. It starts off by introducing Seth (Clooney) and Richie (Tarantino) Gekko, two brothers who have robbed a bank and are now heading for Mexico to get sanctuary in a town called El Ray. Seth is cool, calm, professional: a cold sociopath who cares about nothing more than getting the job done. Richie, on the other hand, is a full blown psychosexual pervert. He rapes women, he kills for no reason, and he's absolutely paranoid. On the other side of the tracks lie Jacob and Kate Fuller (Keitel and Lewis), an ex-minister and his daughter, both low on their faith.
So how do we become a movie about a bunch of stripper vampires? You've got me.
I really could tell you how this film descends into the utter madness at which it ends up, but it doesn't seem to matter. All that matters is that >From Dusk till Dawn is good until it gets in the bar, and then it sucks worse than the vampires it depicts.
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Robert Rodriguez Producer: Gianni Nunnari, Meir Teper Writer: Quentin Tarantino Starring: George Clooney, Quentin Tarantino, Juliette Lewis, Harvey Keitel
In order to hear about some more messed up movies, join James' mailing list: http://filmcritic2000.listbot.com/
More of James' reviews at: http://mk2k.epinions.com/user-mk2k
Short Stuff, reviews of Short Films and Hypermedia: http://www.othercinema.com/~jbrundage/
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews