Not what many expected

Rating: 7/10 (19 July 2014)

I remember watching this with a friend who told me after the film, she was loving it until they went to Road House, at which point it turned into the worst movie ever made.
Maybe it was my love of horror movies, maybe it was my teenage Salma Hayek lust going into overdrive, who knows? But I absolutely loved it from start to finish. However, my friend, Jenny made a good point about this film: it starts off as one type of movie and then morphs into something completely different. Often with a film you can get a pretty good feel for what you are watching in the first 15-20 minutes and have a reasonably good idea if you are going to enjoy it or not. This is one film where you can love the first 45 minutes and despise the rest of the film, or vice versa.
George Clooney and Quentin Tarantino star as the Grecko Brothers who, after an amusing opening sequence where they rob a liquor store, are on the run from the police and end up taking a retired Priest Jake Fuller and his two children (one of whom is Juliette Lewis fresh off of Natural Born Killers) hostage as they head to Mexico to meet their friend Carlos (one of many roles in the movie played by Cheech Marin). Upon arrival The Greckos are given quite a show by a stripper (Salma Hayek) who feeds Tarantino some champagne down her leg.
That's where it gets pretty different, as they turn out to be in a vampire bar and Clooney spends the rest of the movie fighting creatures of darkness, before an amusing final scene with Cheech.
This was my second look at a Robert Rodriguez movie following Desperado, and as well as recurring cast members (Tarantino, Hayek, Marin, Danny Trejo) and setting (Mexico) this one also has a very similar feel.
The film delivers something rather different from what you'd expect from the premise and is actually a pretty good kick ass action flick made with typical Rodriguez oddness. The cast are all stellar and it is great watching Clooney and Keitel together.
It's no Desperado by any means, but From Dusk Til Dawn is a satisfying action thriller and one of Rodriguez's better films.