Blasphemy! (From Dusk Till Dawn 2 - Texas Blood Money (DVD))

Member Name: neinel

Product:	From Dusk Till Dawn 2 - Texas Blood Money (DVD)
Date:	15/10/00 (46 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good peformance from Robert Patrick, good direction from Scott Spiegel, similar atmosphere to the original From Dusk Till Dawn

Disadvantages: Weak plot, low budget, a blatant cash in on the original film

You can imagine my excitement when I heard last year that a sequel to From Dusk Till Dawn was in the pipeline. You can then imagine my unspeakable disappointment when I learned that it would star none of the characters from the original film except Razor Charlie, the barman. To add insult to injury, Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez have practically nothing to do with this film, acting merely as executive producers. Small wonder, then, that this was a straight to video release.

Instead of continuing the exploits of Seth Gecko, Texas Blood Money is based around new characters. Luther, a bank robber, has recently escaped from jail in Texas and hatches a plan to rob a bank in Mexico rumoured to contain $5 million of laundered drug money. To help him out, he gets in touch with his old partner in crime, Buck (played by Robert Patrick, the T-1000 from Terminator 2), and they round up a further three accomplices to go to Mexico. When they arrive that night, Luther goes to get the blueprints for the bank, whilst the others wait back at a motel. While Luther is driving down a desolate country road, a very strange and human-like bat smashes straight into his car, leaving it unroadworthy. He goes to the nearest place to get help and this place just happens to be The Titty Twister from the first film and Razor Charlie is back behind the bar, despite apparently having met his maker in the original outing. But he is called Razor Eddie in this film, so perhaps he is not meant to be the same character. Eddie briefly mentions how the Gecko brothers dropped by and messed the place up real good and then offers Luther a lift back to his car and Luther accepts. But what Luther doesn't know is that Razor Eddie has a rather less appealing alter ego and won't be exactly over the moon when he discovers one of his own kind mortally wounded by Luther's car...

I won't give the rest of the plot away but Luther does make it back alive with the blueprints an
d they go to the bank as planned. Once inside the bank, however, things go very wrong as it dawns on them that there may be a vampire among them. Rober Patrick plays a good hero but just can't match up the charismatic and brutally cool Seth Gecko he is clearly modelled on. The rest of the gang are passable actors, with Woody Harrelson's brother Brett giving a convincing performance as the mentally challenged Ray Bob. Believe it or not, this film was actually directed by Scott Spiegel, who wrote and starred in the brilliant Evil Dead 2. While on the subject of Evil Dead 2, look out for a cameo in the opening scene from Bruce Campbell (Ash from the Evil Dead films). While on the subject of cameos, James Parks (son of Michael Parks, who played Deputy Earl McGraw in the original film) pops up in this film as Earl McGraw's son. He is talking with some other Texas Rangers and they mention how the Gecko brothers killed his father.

Texas Blood Money has the bog standard Mexican flavoured soundtrack you'd expect but, surprisingly, it does possess a similar atmosphere to the original From Dusk Till Dawn. But the fact that they have to make such forced references to the Gecko brothers just demonstrates that this film has no right to poke its nose into the storyline of the original. It seems to greedily stand on the shoulders of the first From Dusk Till Dawn and cash in on the mastery of it because it is so clearly devoid of it itself. If you saw this film on a week night at 9.00pm on Channel 5 (as you invariably will in two years time) you would probably consider it a fairly good film, or nearer a masterpiece considering Channel 5's usual films. On its own, it is not that bad it is just the fact that it brands itself 'From Dusk Till Dawn 2' - as in the eagerly awaited sequel to the 1996 box office smash, boasting megastars such as George Clooney, Quentin Tarantino and Harvey Keitel and owing its creation to the red hot talent of Quentin Tar
antino and Robert Rodriguez. So how could this measly budgeted, poorly scripted, film....sorry cash in, created by and starring (except for Robert Patrick and Scott Spiegel) complete nobodies, possibly live up to the original? Well, er....let's see......it's got the same barman and the Titty Twister in it.....and...and...they mention the Gecko Brothers....and....and....er. Who are they kidding? IT CAN'T!!!

Tarantino and Rodriguez branded this film as 'one for the fans' and defended the straight to video release. Why, then, were they too embarassed to take on roles any bigger than executive producers for this film? Because it's a turkey. They know it as well as everyone else. The fact that it contains the words 'From Dusk Till Dawn' in the title is utter blasphemy. They really should have cut out the references to the original film and marketed this just as 'Texas Blood Money'. That way people would not be constantly comparing it to the unmatchable excellence of its predocessor and appreciate it for not so bad film it actually is. All it has recieved is bad press and this all boils down to one thing: it has attempted to match up to the first film and failed miserably. Still, it is actually an okay film and for all its faults, Robert Patrick puts across a good performance and Scott Spiegel does his very best to try and compensate for the poor storyline. I'd still recommend watching it but don't expect it to be anything like the original.

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