Reservoir Dogs vs. Mexican Vampires

Rating: 8/10 (1 August 2019)

Incredibly fun genre mash-up from director Robert Rodriguez ("Desperado" "The Faculty" "Spy Kids") and screenwriter Quentin Tarantino ("Pulp Fiction" "Kill Bill" "Hateful Eight"). In what is best described as Reservoir Dogs vs. Mexican Vampires, a pair of low-life criminals, The Gecko Brothers, handsome leader George Clooney and creepy sex offender little brother Tarantino, are on the lamb and headed for Mexico when they kidnap Harvey Keitel and family, Juliette Lewis and her brother, to help them sneak across the border in their RV. One thing that makes this film so fun is that the first half is a pretty straight crime film, but it takes a hard genre turn towards horror when our heroes stop off at a seedy strip club to celebrate their successful border crossing, finding themselves in an establishment run by vampires intent on locking everyone inside and feast upon their blood. From there, the film turns from crime film into a "Night of the Living Dead" or "Assault on Precinct 13" style siege film (a nod to which is made by one character wearing a "Precinct 13" t-shirt). I remember a friend of mine watching this film with no idea what it was about or there were any horror elements to the film and had his mind completely explode when the bar employees and strippers all of a sudden start turning into vampires, which I thought was hilarious since there is nothing in the first half of the film to indicate that vampires are coming. The second half of the film is pretty heavy on action and vampire slaying, so there's not as much snappy Tarantino dialogue, but is still fun non-the-less. There's also a very cool supporting cast of character that show up in the vampire club including Salma Hayek as a stripper named Santanico Pandemonium, Cheech Marin in three different roles, Danny Trejo as Razor Charlie, Tom Savini as sex Machine, Greg Nicotero, and the always great Fred Williamson. Some other memorable supporting players who appear prior to the vampire bar are John Saxon, Marc Lawrence, Kelly Preston, John Hawkes, and Michael Parks. There's also some fun crossovers moments to other Tarantino and Rodriguez films including Michael Park's Earl McGraw later becoming a recurring character in "Kill Bill," "Planet Terror," and "Death Proof". There's also Chango Beer and Sex Machine's codpiece gun that reference "Desperado." Big Kahuna Burgers from "Pulp Fiction" also make an appearance and would later reappear in "Death Proof." Clooney also borrows a line from "Reservoir Dogs" with "All right, Ramblers. Let's get ramblin'!" Oh, and Tarantino's trademark foot fetish is also present. So for fans of Rodrigues and Tarantino movies, this one is hard to resist. For non-fans, you may not love it as much, but it's still goofy crime and horror film fun. FUN FACT! In return for providing the ear-slicing scene special effects in Reservoir Dogs, Robert Kurtzman asked Tarantino to write the screenplay for "From Dusk Till Dawn" based on his original story.