FROM DUSK TILL DAWN (61)

Directed by: Robert Rodriguez

Starring: George Clooney, Harvey Keitel, Quentin Tarantino

The Pitch: A pair of criminal brothers plus a family of hostages hole up for the night in the "Titty Twister", a sleazy bar cum haunt-of-the-undead.

Theo Sez: A spectacularly trashy film, but with lots of energy and king-size cojones. Also, for about half its length, an unsettling journey down the mean and moody (and heartlessly comic) byways of Tarantinoland, with the man himself surprisingly effective as a psycho: he's not a good actor (nor is this a good movie) but his whiny, irritating presence does manage to suggest a more general turpitude (basically, one would like to see him dead - which works well for this particular character). The film's switch two-thirds of the way through into horror-movie gorefest, far from the arbitrary gimmick some have claimed, is an excellent joke, sly and self-deprecating - spend an hour creating two bad, dangerous motherfuckers then suddenly turn them into hapless victims of something way badder. Unfortunately the film-makers (and the effects people) seem to have got carried away, trying to spin what should be the story's climax into a whole other movie, with lots of needless detail (like the 'Nam story) and one climactic battle too many. Still enjoyable, in its crummy way, and confirming Rodriguez as the action director to watch.