Glen here...
Well, folks - the article title pretty much says it all.
Below: two reviews of the forthcoming From Dusk ‘Till Dawn 2 straight-to-video release. One review is from GERN CRANIUM, the other is from ASH PLISSKEN.
Here are the reviews. Be aware, both reviews are laced with spoilers.
First up: the review from ASH PLISSKEN:
Working at a video store rarely has its perks, but I got one the other day. A preview copy of From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money came in.
This movie starts with a cameo by everyone's favorite genre star Bruce "Ash" Campbell, and and everyone's favorite 90210 boob job reciepent Tiffani Amber Thiessen. They are quickly killed off in a very cheesy way.
On to the main story: we meet Robert "T1000" Patrick, who they never say but I figured he was supposed to be another Gecko brother. We find out that one of his buddies has escaped from the police, he's the pawn shop owner from Pulp Fiction. And of course the first thing he wants to do is rob a bank in Mexico. He has Robert round up their compadres for their heist. We then meet Jesus a buffed up Mexican tuffy. The film makers then start in on the crazy POV's, I think they just try to beet themselves with every shot.
They start with the push up POV, then go through some really crazy ones, at least one every few minutes including inside a shotgun, inside a skull, inside a ribcage, inside a vampires mouth, of course the car trunk, and my fav the inside of a fresh wound. (Man did that sentence run on.) Back to the characters, we meet Woody Harrelson's brother he's the geek of the bunch. And we meet the old safe expert. I don't remember a single characters name, except for Jesus.
They're off to Mexico. Where of course they run into vampires, and the only returning person from the first one, the bartender at the Titty Twister. One by one they are turned, but they still do the bank job. Then the police show up for the stand off. This is the first time I've ever seen a bunch of vampires using machine guns, with the Aliens like grenade launchers attached. Most of the cops are killed off, until the sun comes up, and then is quickly put out by a eclipse. Which usually only last a few minutes, but here lasts about 20. We then find Robert Patrick and his arch nemesis, some cop, battle it out with the vampires in a very similar way to the first movie. All ends well.
Thats a run down of the story. Very basic. I think Quentin and Robert, executive producers only, tried to find a director that could best rip them off. The camera work was a mix of the two, but went a little to far with all the weird POV's. Music style same as Robert's in Desperado. And they even had a Reservoir Dogs like discussion about porn films. I would only recommend this to hard core fans of the first.
All others will find very bad.
Now, the review from GERN CRANIUM:
First off, let me just tell you that I loved the first movie, and had (even though it is direct-to-video) high hopes for this movie. Now, let me also stress that i have received the screener copy of this through a movie store that i work at, so maybe they can change some objectionable stuff. To make this as thorough as possible, I'm just gonna run down key points. I'll try to keep the spoilers to a minimum, and let you know when there coming.
Plot: This here is a pretty cool plot. The basic story is a guy named Buck (Robert Patrick) meets up with his friend Luther who just busted out of prison. He tells Buck of a plan to rob a Mexican Bank, and that Buck should round up a crew. He goes and gets this guy C.W., (The fisherman from I know what you did last summer) and recruits this guy Jesus, and Ray-Bob. Luther is going to meet up with the gang, runs over a bat, and happens to land in our favorite hang-out the titty twister. needless to say our friend meets with the bartender and well....i'll ruin it later.
However, harry, the plot is where the good stuff ends. I have a bunch of problems on how this just ruins the name from dusk till dawn.
1. I don't know what they filmed this on, but it sure isn't film. When your watching it, it has this cinemax-ian quality to it. At first I tried to play it off, but it kept bothering me.
2. The director (scott spiegel) honest to god, doesn't know what he's doing. He throws the camera around and gives the most ridiculous point of view shots i.e. we see p.o.v. ranging from a telephone cord to a characters head while doing push-ups! (what kind of shit is that!) Now personally i don't mind some p.o.v shots, but he tries at least 6 a scene, and maybe 1 works. My guess is that he tried to imitate Robert as best as he could, and believe me, failed big time.
3. They spent from what i heard 10 million on this movie. My question is "Where the hell did it go?" From the FX standpoint, the bats aren't too bad looking. When the vampires are killed though it looks like i could have shit out better effects.
4. My biggest problem with the movie at all, of all the death in what Tarantino claimed it would be "balls out action," you see maybe 2 or 3 of the deaths. This movie could have been easily pg-13. And for the love of all movie geeks, Mr. Ash, Bruce Campbell himself is fucking done away with scream- like in the opening scene.
I'd like to say that this movie could have easily been, under different direction, a damn cool movie. Robert Patrick (who's been pretty cool lately in his roles) is the best part of the movie. The director just totally dropped the ball.
However I have to go into some spoilers that totally make this movie not worth the shit that comes out of bats. SPOILERS BEGIN!!!
The only mention of the first one is when the texas sheriff, claims that his family or someone’s family was wiped out by the damn "Gecko brothers" and the whole 2 minute scene in the titty twister.
Also while Buck and compatriots are robbing the bank, and luther is turning them one by one, the idea is never asked. How come vampires need money?! The only thing that saves buck once the police arrive is the sun slowly starts to rise. Now I know what your thinking, thats a pretty shitty ending, but wait it gets worse. Of course on this day the solar eclipse is going on, and makes it pitch black. So then the vampires walk out with guns from the cops, and start shooting up the place. Next question, how come vampires need fucking guns?!!!
The funniest line in the movie is when Buck is hand-cuffed in the back of the cop-car right before the solar eclipse starts and says " You gotta be fucking kidding me!"
All in all, this movie, has tarnished the name from dusk till dawn. I can only hope that the prequel is better than this.
Hell, it has to be!
Glen here, again...
For a review of the From Dusk ‘Till Dawn *prequel* mentioned above (the prequel review was initially posted by Coaxial back in late October), CLICK HERE!
