Old formula doesn't cut it for new flick

Hempstead, N.Y., February, 1, 1996—The formula seems simple enough. Have Quentin Tarantino think of a story, any story. Then have him turn it into a screenplay, grab the same actors that appear in seemingly every Tarantino movie, get a set in Hollywood and start the cameras rolling. That much worked for Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction and the Oliver Stone-directed Natural Born Killers.

Then again, formulas, being what they are, become boring after a while, and Tarantino's critics expressed as much of Pulp Fiction. Tarantino's fans—not the run-of-the-mill moviegoers who only saw Pulp Fiction because it was a massive hit—found him using his same tricks, with some of the same actors and almost the same dialogue. Essentially, it was an excellent movie, but nothing new. It did not expound upon Tarantino's first film, Reservoir Dogs, it simply followed its same ideas.

But after seeing Tarantino's latest effort, the Robert Rodriguez-directed From Dusk Till Dawn, at least audiences will appreciate that Tarantino has begun to change his movie-making formula. Or at least they will appreciate that he, if nothing else, has one of the world's most creative—and warped—minds. But what they will learn from most from this film is that sometimes it's better not to fix something if it isn't broken, even if that means another Pulp Fiction/Reservoir Dogs remake.

And from the movie's onset, it appears this is exactly what From Dusk Till Dawn is. The first half of the film is standard Tarantino, with standard Tarantino dialogue and standard Tarantino actors. This isn't all his fault, but Rodriguez doesn't show much originality in his direction. The movie seems as if Tarantino directed it as well, with camera shots, angles and pans right out of Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs. Even the soundtrack mixes the surf guitar and '70s throwbacks which were trademarks of Tarantino's earlier efforts.

As audiences will later find, the film is—for lack of a better word—original, but the beginning of the move, with few exceptions (such as casting E.R. star George Clooney as the lead and Tarantino himself in a legitimate part), just seems like every other Tarantino work. It is entertaining, but by now the formula has become a bit drawn out.

After hijacking Harvey Keitel's character, his family and his R.V., bank robbers Clooney and Tarantino manage to make it past the Mexican border, where they are supposed to meet up with a Mexican crime lord who can offer them sanctuary. All of this takes well over an hour, and is overdone.

Then Clooney and company enter a strip club/road bar to wait for a rendezvous at dawn; however, the club isn't just a local watering hole. It just happens to be built on an ancient pyramid inhabited by vampires. After a brief fracas, an all-out melee follows, and what was a serious film with good dialogue turns into a vampire-killing spoof on par with such cult classics as Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness.

Sound complicated? It is—too complicated for Tarantino, Rodriguez or anyone else to make successful. The shift between serious flick to spoof happens as quickly as a gunshot, making the transition so abrupt and far-fetched that it seems as if From Dusk Till Dawn is actually two separate movies stuck together on a reel of film with Scotch tape.

Unfortunately, it doesn't come close to working. Even good performances by Clooney, Tarantino and Keitel can't carry this film, nor can its excellent special effects cover up the lack of cohesiveness in its plot. A vampire spoof would have been funny. Another Pulp Fiction would at least have been entertaining. But to supplant finding a new movie formula for creating an amalgam of two unrelated ones is sheer lunacy.

Maybe it's a sign, though; Tarantino does play a madman in his role.