From Dusk Till Dawn: Great first half, but... (1 Viewer)

[Holadem]

I discovered this last week end. I really liked this movie until right after they found out what kind of bar they were in. From there it became very predictable. I thought it was a very dissapointing second half for such a fresh and original first half. Anyone else feels that way?
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Holadem - I will probably buy it tho, if only for Salma Hayek

 

[Alex Spindler]

It was intentionally a dual nature film, and if I remember correctly, the first half was largely written by Tarantino and the second from the other writer. I also agree that the first half is better, because I felt a great degree of the second half lacked originality.

 

[Stephen B]

from dusk till dawn is fantastic, the story is by the K in KNB ( who happen to do the effects aswell )greg kurtzman (spelling?) it was then rewritten by mr pulp fiction, i think the dramatic turn around from a fairly no bs crim flick to a balls out monster-fest ( i refuse to call it horror, only girlfriends would find this scary )really catches you off guard, and is a great surprise to anyone not in the know.
the 2 disc SE get realeased over here ( australia ) next month, ill gladly add it to my collection.
steve
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[AdrianJ]

From Dusk Till Dawn was quite a disappointment for me. I was completely engaged in the first half of the movie...the part that Quentin Tarantino wrote. But then, halfway through, there is a noticeable change in tone and you can tell where Robert Rodriguez has started changing the story. It descends into nothing more than a monster mash. I liked the movie, but it was such a disappointment after such a great story to end up in such a mess as the second half was. I would have love to have seen the complete Tarantino movie.
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Adrian Jones

 

[Matthew Brown]

I picked up a script to Tarrantino's original version a while ago. It had a lot more in it that was used in his other movies down the road.
Samual L. Jackson's speach that he gives was used by the Harvey Keitel character when he was killing the vampires, if I remember correctly.
Matt

 

[Mark Palermo]

I was under the impression that Tarantino was the sole writer here. In any case, I prefer the Romero inspired second half.
Mark

 

[EricW]

i'm a big Tarantino fan but i thought this script wasn't that great. i mean there were some great parts but there were also some parts where he fell in love with himself. some moments were just hard to listen to (in my opinion).
examples:
Keitel: "no i'm not saying you're fucking stupid, i was asking a question... (blah blah blah)"
Clooney: "do you think this is what i am?!?!?"
haven't seen the movie in a while, but that's just what i remember

 

[Julie K]

I greatly prefer the second half of From Dusk Till Dawn. The first half is just not the sort of thing I enjoy and I only made it through it by knowing what was coming. I really enjoyed the second half, even if they did rip off Bad Taste at one point

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[Gavin K]

...even better second half.
This movie rocked. Just pure gleeful abandon. Clooney is cool, Keitel stayed in character without turning him into cheese, and Cheech, Savini, and Williamson were hilarious.
Deadalive is still my all time favorite silly gorefest, but Dusk til Dawn is a pretty close second. Especially after seeing some of the deleted scenes and cuts!
I don't see how the first half could have sustained its energy, it would have turned into a cat/mouse game, and an entire movie set in the bar wouldn't have been as effective. Instead of just setting up a bunch of stock characters and placing them in the bar, we get some moments of genuine tension, suspense and pure creepiness.
Instead of looking at this film as being split in two, it just had a really well done expository sequence.
I just wish more supposed horror movies had this much style, panache and all out go for the gusto attitude.

 

[Richard Smith]

Count me in as someone else who prefers the second half more than the first, if only because of the chance to see Tom Savini kick some vampire arse.
I watched Full Tilt Boogie the other day and found it a much more enjoyable piece than the full film.
Richard
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[todd stone]

the movie kicked ass allaround.

 

[Ernesto Santos]

First half, second half, blah, blah, blah, who cares. The best part of the movie is the middle when Salma does her thang.

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[Edited last by Ernesto Santos on October 08, 2001 at 10:03 PM]

 

[David Rogers]

Put me down as preferring the first half greatly. The second is a basic slasher flick, and I never watch those anyway. I mean, ok so they had makeup/costumes/prosthetics plus uber-gallons of fake blood/gorefluid? Not my cup o'tea at all, that's fer sure.
There are a few good lines in the second half though:
* "are you a preacher or are you a mean-MF'ing-servant of God?"
* "What? One bar's as good as another."
heh
Oh, and it wasn't until the second half we saw more of Clooney's character's tatto, and I did cool tatto work even if its just looking at a fake one in a film. It was a neat little character bit.
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[Inspector Hammer!]

The whole thing rocked! I really loved the first half with the criminals on the run plot, but when they got to the 'Titty Twister', it turned into a rockin-n-rollin, rompin stompin, fluid spewin, vampire ass kickin jamboree!! And I loved every minuet of it!
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[Jeff Adams]

I totally agree with you. The first half of the movie was a typical "GREAT" Tarantino film. After the bar scene, it got pretty silly. But still cool at the same time. The first time I watched it, I was kind of dissapointed but I really like it now. Every year around Halloween it is a movie my wife and I watch and enjoy. Hey, it's about that time again, going home to watch it now.
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[Dome Vongvises]

I liked this movie quite a bit, although I still don't understand to this day why I haven't gotten the DVD for this movie yet. Pure dumb fun at the end of a long hard day .
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[Christina_DQ]

The whole movie rocks!
It's pure drive-in,explotation,gory,in your face,kick ass, no holds barred un-pc FUN!!!
A great time alround & sadly there just aren't as many movies made like this anymore

A classic

 

[Gavin K]

Quote: "The second is a basic slasher flick, and I never watch those anyway."
No offense, if silly gore isn't your cup of tea, fine, but this is anything but a basic slasher film. In a slasher film you usually have a monster, Jason or Freddy, etc., slowly stalking and killing a group of people one by one, climaxing with a prolonged cat and mouse game between the creature and the last survivor.
From Dusk til Dawn was original, funny, and hyper. Much, much better than your basic slasher flick.

 

[tyler O]

Gavin,
I think you nailed it perfectly saying that the while the first half was good for what it was, it would have just wound down to predictability from there. I thought the second half brought a large amount of confusion and I thought brought it better than most other films of the nature of the second half because you could so easily identify with how "normal" the brothers and family was and how they react when faced with such a situation. I can't see liking the first half as much as I did with a crappy predictable Hollywood second half. Instead we got a great romp and a wonderful time. I really enjoy this movie all around...
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[Vlad D]

I thought I'd revive this thread.
I just saw this movie again this past weekend, and I had forgotten how much I liked it. Man, Selma was hot doing that snake dance!! That was one lucky snake.
Also, the funnest scene in the movie is Cheech as the strip club doorman.
Love this movie. Even more since I got it for free.