Great Pre-Grindhouse

Rating: Null/10 (26 February 2008)

From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)
**** (out of 4)
Robert Rodriquez takes a Quentin Tarantino script and turns out a wild ride of a film that pays homage to the grindhouse cinema. Two fugitives (George Clooney, Tarantino) are trying to get across the Mexican border and takes a family (Harvey Keitel, Juliette Lewis, Ernest Liu) hostage. Once across the border they stop at a bar, which just happens to be full of vampires. Even in the horror community the opinions are split on this one but I love every second of it. I loved how the film starts out as a crime drama and then does a complete turn into a horror film. Both halves of the film work fine with me due in large part to Tarantino's script but the cast is simply wonderful. Keitel is great as usual and Clooney made a wonderful debut here. The supporting cast of Lewis, Tarantino, Tom Savini, John Saxson, Fred Williamson, Salma Hayek and Cheech Marin are incredibly fun to watch and bring the film up several notches. There's some great gore, strong laughs and a great dance by Hayek, which shows Tarantino's foot fetish once again.