Rating: ***
Director: Robert Rodriguez
Writer: Quentin Tarantino
Cast: George Clooney, Quentin Tarantino, Juliette Lewis, Harvey Keitel,
Salma Hayek, Cheech Marin, Tom Savini, Fred Williamson
What a bizarre amalgam this is. George Clooney and his whacko brother Quentin Tarantino are a couple of crooks on their way to Mexico. Unfortunately for them, Tarantino butchers their hostage and they're forced to hijack a mobile home belonging to holy man Harvey Keitel and his two kids. They manage to make it into Mexico and end up at a raunchy bar called "The Titty Twister" which is actually a hangout for vampires! A little over halfway through the film, it radically turns from a Tarantino-esque crime drama to a free-for-all blood orgy horror film, as the vampires perform their nightly feeding rituals on the unsuspecting human patrons in the bar. The rest of the film sees our human "heroes" fighting for their lives against the undead, and the body count rises steadily. A fun film with strong performances and pretty nifty gore effects. Unfortunately, for my tastes, it takes a little too long for the action to finally kick in.