From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money

This is much worse than I ever expected it to be. Scott Spiegel, whose work I have enjoyed up till recently, has penned such flicks as Clint Eastwood's THE ROOKIE, and Sam Raimi's EVIL DEAD II: DEAD BY DAWN. He is also the man responsible for giving Quentin Tarantino (my idol) his start in the business. Unfortunately, he cannot cut it in the director's chair.

The effects, especially the incredibly noticeable fake bats, are ludicrous. The cinematography, which I suppose was considered creative or perhaps experimental when the film was being shot, was abominable (POV shots do not work with someone who is doing pushups, or even household appliances, i.e. a rotating window fan, no matter what people tell you). The artistic shots of the film (a cattle skull with snake/spider crawling over it) are disappointing, and I suppose trying to immitate those of Tobe Hooper's TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (recurring shots of a full moon).

Moreover, the advertisements for a "teaser-role" for cult horror icon Bruce Campbell, were little more than completely false. When I heard this, I figured that Spiegel would be giving B.C. a significant cameo, after they worked together on EVIL DEAD 2. Of course, this is not true. Bruce Campbell does little more than simply walk into frame, say a few words (very few) and die. There has not been a greater example of false advertising since Bruce Lee was billed as starring in the absolute fake GAME OF DEATH.

The plot, if any, is an extremely weak one. The only good work by any actor is that of Robert Patrick, who as usual, never ceases to impress.

Overall, the film was a disgrace to the name of the original. I do not mean to put down Scott Spiegel's previous works at all, nor do I mean to insult his ability to write a good screenplay. This film unfortunately does just not live up to his potential, and definitely does not exhibit his flair for screenwriting.

Making a sequel to the original From Dusk Till Dawn seems impossible, and this joint shouldn't be seen as a sequel. The only things featured in the original is a few actors and nothing else. Anyways, the movie has many funny B-movie shots, overdone one would say, and it seem as if the director Scott Spiegel is tryin' too hard to make it like his friend Sam Raimi's Evil Dead films, including cameo by Bruce Campbell. The acting is pretty bad, the plot is even worse, but still there's some quite good ideas. But it's only a made-for-video film, so I didn't have any expectations at all, even though From Dusk... being one of my all-time-favorite. It's actually impressive that Tarantino & Rodriguez even wanted to executive this movie.

Check it out, I'm on my way to rent the 3rd one... Peace Out!

If you've read the 'Evil Dead companion' or 'If Chins could kill' you'll know what kind of guy Scott Speigel is. I watched Army of Darkness the other day, the bootleg edition, with the commentary on and was belly laughing when two topless slave girls wander on to the screen and Bruce recounts the story of how they got into the movie.

Apparently it was all Scott's idea; he steamrollered the idea past them when they weren't paying attention. Next day when Bruce arrived at the office he was stunned to find hundreds of girls lined up waiting to show Scott their boobs for the chance to get on the screen topless for maybe 2 or 3 seconds. That's the kind of guy Scott Speigel is and I like him.

And, let's face it, that's how come Bruce Campbell's in this movie - they go way back.

Oh yeah - the film - well, it's good in a Scott Speigel kind of way. Not as much fun as the Intruder (which is well worth getting if you're a Deadite fan, oh yeah) but still a good laugh a using loads of Spiegel's trade mark POV shots.

Alot of people are going to disagree though - the people i was watching this with, for example, all thought it sucked. Fair enough, but sometimes people take movies too seriously. If you like trashy B-movies, you'll like this.

If you don't you won't. Oh, and don't expect anything like the first one, it's a totally different kettle of fish. Much cheaper, much cheesier, muchos muchos muchos.

I think you already know whether you'll like this flick or not...

After hearing countless people tell me how crappy this movie is, and after reading tons of reviews that make it sound totally unbearable, I decided to watch it myself. You know what? They are all wrong. Most of the movie is at LEAST average direct-to-video work. Of course it isn't as good as the original, but this movie was just as gory, more action-packed, and had some very funny moments (they watched Mexican porno for a VERY long time in that motel room). I was not disappointed watching this movie, because I didn't take it seriously. I suggest you relax and give it a try, you'll laugh at how funny they tried to make this a good movie.

I only caught the "edited" version on Sci-Fi Channel, but must admit that I found this to be a mildly entertaining film. It takes a basic ideas (vampires robbing a bank) and goes with it and runs.

The problem is that that's really all there is, and there's not much running track. Like the original, it tries to stay "reality" grounded as a caper flick, but given this is a shorter movie, this goes on _way_ too long before you actually get to vampires.

Once we get the first guy bit by a vampire, it moves along to "vampires rob a bank" and "vampires shoot it out with police." But...that's really about it. The writers seemed to have run out of ideas, and so we just get interminable variations on these two basic ideas. There is no real climax - the vampire bad guys are subsequently interchangeable, and the only really competent one (Jesus) gets killed before the formerly-dimwitted one. The ending is just one big shootout, prolonged by a convenient solar eclipse. Which is another pointless plot point - if you want vampires to be in the darkness, just keep them in darkness and have the sun come up normally. Adding the solar eclipse does nothing here. It's stuff like this which suggests the writers didn't know quite what they were doing.

As for the Raimi-esque POV shots, a little goes a long way - something that Scott Spiegel should have learned from the master. It's kinda fun the first twenty times, but after that...

Overall, I'd recommend it if you can catch it on the cheap. It's no classic, but it's mildly amusing.