A Black Comedy turned Nightmare

Rating: 7/10 (21 October 2009)

This film is perhaps most famous for its twist about halfway through the story. It is quite a twist on the film's reality, I'd say comparable to the one in "The Matrix" in that absolutely nothing is the same after. Also, like in the aforementioned film, the twist makes sense... but only if looked at from a certain point of view.
The story goes from a caper black comedy with a pair of crooks who are on their way to Mexico to escape US law enforcement. They take some hostages and narrowly slip through the border and to a meeting point, a bar with exotic dancers. It seems that their dreams are just about to come true and they'll be sipping margaritas safe from the confines of prison... but then what happens? Our very frightened protagonists find themselves locked in the bar, that is now basically a prison, but it is not run by law enforcement officers, it's worse. It's not even run by the Gestapo... it's worse! No, this place is worse than their worst nightmares and too bad for them that it is real, since it seems everyone has been given an automatic death sentence. The bar is run by vampires who feast on visitors in order to stay alive.
Is the twist odd? Yes, very much so, but with a screenplay by Quentin Tarantino, only some sort of off the wall unconventional twist can be expected. Tarantino himself has a supporting role as the very weird and deranged brother of George Clooney's character. At this point Tarantino was known for crime capers and to an extent this is one too, but it fits into Tarantino's list of movies the way his character is in the film: a total weirdo with a penchant for violence. Also Robert Rodriguez has yet to make something quite like this as well...
Overall, this is an odd and very violent movie that is decidedly not for all tastes, but it's dark wit and sense of humor cannot be denied. See it to get a glimpse of something quite different. --- 7/10
BsCDb Classification: 16+ --- violence/gore