From Dusk Till Dawn Movie Review

From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)

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Written by: Robert Kurtzman (story), Quentin Tarantino (screenplay)
Directed by: Robert Rodriguez
Starring: George Clooney, Quentin Tarantino, Harvey Keitel, Juliette Lewis, Salma Hayek, Cheech Marin, Danny Trejo, Tom Savini
Rated: R
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Plot
Two criminals and their hostages unknowingly seek temporary refuge in a truck stop populated by vampires, with chaotic results.

Verdict
A gory vampire movie may not be for everyone, but this manages to give the characters some depth while building on a simple premise.  It's fast paced and never less than entertaining. This takes what could easily be a throwaway b-movie and makes more than a few smart choices with the plot. It boasts the fun of a cheesy action movie while giving the movie real stakes.
It depends.

Review
This was Clooney's breakout film role after his acclaimed time on ER (1994). He left that series in 1998 to focus on his movie career.

This starts with a cop chatting up a convenience store clerk, talking a lot about nothing. As soon as the cop leaves for the bathroom, two kidnappers appear out of hiding. This situation gets intense quickly. Two brothers, Seth (George Clooney) and Richie (Quentin Tarantino) Gecko, are psychopath killers and kidnappers for no other reason than to quickly establish them as villains. They're on the run after Richie freed Seth from the courthouse. Richie is deranged while Seth is a professional.

Quentin Tarantino, George Clooney play Richie, Seth Gecko

In a parallel story that's certain to intersect, Jacob (Harvey Keitel) and his children are on vacation to Mexico. He's a pastor on sabbatical that's questioning his faith. Of course they run into the Gecko brothers who kidnap the family and use their RV as a means of getting into Mexico. They make it across, but not without a close call.

The Gecko brother's destination is an outlandish bar where they're supposed to meet their contact that will get them to a hideout. Seth takes the family into the bar with them, not wanting them to reveal the brothers' location just yet. This is where the movie takes a genre shift, and that's part of the fun. This takes a b-movie premise and gives it just enough story depth. This is a bar full of vampires. With a lot of rough patrons, not even including Seth, they're able to fend off the first wave.

George Clooney, Harvey Keitel, Juliette Lewis play Seth Gecko, Jacob, Kate Fuller

Seth and the family he kidnapped are now tied together, relying on each other to survive this situation. Most movies establish the main characters early and you know they'll survive. In this, it doesn't seem like anyone is safe. With nearly every scene there are fewer survivors as the vampires are relentless. The pacing is fast, and all the characters face difficult decisions.

This bar has been luring people into it for several decades, if not centuries. The parting shot reveals it's some kind of ancient temple that's been operating for a very long time. This easily could have been a dull, trope filled action movie, but this is well made with enough depth combined with the chaos to make it more than entertaining and a better movie that you might first suspect based on the premise.