DEFINITION OF STRAIGHT-TO-VIDEO
(reviewed on video, Thurday, April 8th)
In 1996, two of the best directors working today formed a one-time alliance and created a full blown, balls to the wall, horror/action film about Mexican vampires. It was everything and more. Blood and guts and vulgarity and sex and a strip club called The Titty Twister. Quentin Tarantino produced, wrote, and starred, and Robert Rodiguez directed and edited. It was such a phenomenon and cult fave that Miramax’s horror subsidary Dimension Films decided to not just make sequel, but a sequel and a prequel. In my mind, the Weinstein’s either loved From Dusk Till Dawn or wanted to squeeze every possible cent out of it by creating a franchise.
Unfortunately their plan failed miserable. Not only did From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money arrive on video without a sound, but the prequel, Hangman’s Daughter, a supposedly better movie, may stay in limbo forever waiting for studio honchos to decide to release it theatrically or on video.
FDTD 2 has nothing to do with Tarantino or Rodriguez. Scott Spiegel, a director of photography, was asked to helm this sequel. He co-wrote and directed it. So I suppose if you blame anyone, it’s him.
The premise deals with Robert Patrick getting a call from his friend who just escaped from jail. His friend knows of this bank down in Mexico that’ll be a snap to rob. So Patrick assembles a sorted crew of thugs and morons each with their own “thing” (one’s a tough guy, one’s an idiot, etc.) to go rob this bank. The friend from jail goes to meet Patrick at a motel in Mexico. Problem is he hits a bat with his car. It doesn’t exactly look like a bat, though. His car is fucked so he goes walking through the Mexican desert only to find the infamous Titty Twister. Fast forward and Patrick’s friend is now a vampire. Eventually he starts to turn the bank robbery gang into vampires one by one. The horrible ending has an OK-Corral shootout between the vamps and cops after the bank robbery turns into a Reservoir Dogs.
For what’s it worth, there are a few good parts in FDTD 2. Maybe I should specify: a very few. Before the bank robbery the film is actually watchable, albeit on a straight to video scale. The scenes in the motel are decent, and it was nice seeing Danny Trejo back (he’s the only one from the original).
Spiegel himself uses the camera in some pretty fresh ways. Unfortunately it gets tiresome after awhile since every damn shot he’s trying to outdo himself. By the end of this mess even the actors have realized they shouldn’t have signed up for this, no matter what the paycheck.
Let’s just hope the actors didn’t take a percentage over big bucks. *
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