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20 out of 25 people found the following review useful: Not nearly as bad as people say it is, 9 June 1999 Author: Barry Iverson from Washington, USA
After hearing countless people tell me how crappy this movie is, and after reading tons of reviews that make it sound totally unbearable, I decided to watch it myself. You know what? They are all wrong. Most of the movie is at LEAST average direct-to-video work. Of course it isn't as good as the original, but this movie was just as gory, more action-packed, and had some very funny moments (they watched Mexican porno for a VERY long time in that motel room). I was not disappointed watching this movie, because I didn't take it seriously. I suggest you relax and give it a try, you'll laugh at how funny they tried to make this a good movie.
12 out of 14 people found the following review useful: It's enjoyable if you want a good time killer., 22 November 2003 Author: strangerzero from united states
From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money (1999) is a pretty bad movie, but completely watchable for any gorehounds out there. The first From Dusk Till Dawn is still the best out of the series, even though I have yet to see the third film. I can see why FDTD2 didn't get a theatrical release: none of the original people are back, there are several plot holes and errors, and it definitely feels like a straight-to-video flick. The story this time around is this:The film opens up in a lawyers office. For some reason Tiffani-Amber Thiessen and Bruce Campbell are there, playing a couple of lawyers when they get into the elevator. All of a sudden a bunch of bats knock the elevator out of control, and the two people die. Then cut to our primary character, Buck (Robert Patrick). Buck is of course an ex-con who is planning a big heist with his buddies down in Mexico. Buck goes to pick up his friends C.W. (Muse Watson), Ray Bob (Brett Harrelson), and Jesus (Raymond Cruz) to take a drive across the border and meet the last of their group, Luther (Duane Whitaker), who is recently escaped fugitive. Before driving to the meeting point, Luther pays a visit to the Titty Twister, the infamous bar that you should know by now. While there, he meets Razor Eddie (Danny Trejo). Since Luther ran into a bat on the way over, Eddie drives him back to his truck to see what the damage is. Since the bat is one of Eddie's friends, they turn into vampires and bite Luther. Meanwhile, Buck and the gang are at a motel when Jesus goes into a neighbor's room and has sex with a random girl. Unfortunately for Jesus, Luther shows up and bites both him and the girl. Luther and Jesus, now vampires, go back to the motel room and finally unleash their plan. The gang are to rob a bank that very night and drive off before sunrise. Once at the bank, Buck notices that Jesus and Luther are acting very differently. It doesn't help him that the police, headed by Sheriff Lawson (Bo Hopkins), is waiting outside. As more gang members turn into vampires, Buck must fight off his friends and the police at the same time.The gore is high, the violence is bloody, and the story absolutely sucks. It's enjoyable if you want a good time killer, but other than that there is nothing noteworthy here. So if you are at the local video store and you come across the horror section, choose the first From Dusk Till Dawn instead. Or you can just choose something else that has substance. I give From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money (1999) a 4 out of 10.
15 out of 20 people found the following review useful: OK B-Movie, terrible plot..., 29 August 2000 Author: Rasmus Petersen (swacs@hotmail.com) from Kolding, Denmark
Making a sequel to the original From Dusk Till Dawn seems impossible, and this joint shouldn't be seen as a sequel. The only things featured in the original is a few actors and nothing else. Anyways, the movie has many funny B-movie shots, overdone one would say, and it seem as if the director Scott Spiegel is tryin' too hard to make it like his friend Sam Raimi's Evil Dead films, including cameo by Bruce Campbell. The acting is pretty bad, the plot is even worse, but still there's some quite good ideas. But it's only a made-for-video film, so I didn't have any expectations at all, even though From Dusk... being one of my all-time-favorite. It's actually impressive that Tarantino & Rodriguez even wanted to executive this movie.Check it out, I'm on my way to rent the 3rd one... Peace Out!
8 out of 11 people found the following review useful: Cheesy B-horror fun!, 6 April 2000 Author: Jesse-45 from Florida
OK. This is probably my guiltiest pleasure ever! The acting is extremely awful, and the movie is filled with immature draggings of the originals material. But still I like this movie. A cinescape reviewer wrote that some horror fans desperate for something new in the genre, may forgive the film for its problems. I think I'm probably one of those horror fans.Its more entertaining than a lot of recent theatrical releases. I think the gore is great, and the Evil Dead qualities: Sam Raimi-ish camera angles (overdone), demon-like vampire deaths make this movie even more entertaining. I think its really a great cheeseball B-horror movie.
8 out of 11 people found the following review useful: Fun Movie - But Where's The Plot?, 6 March 2000 Author: Gislef from Iowa City, IA
I only caught the "edited" version on Sci-Fi Channel, but must admit that I found this to be a mildly entertaining film. It takes a basic ideas (vampires robbing a bank) and goes with it and runs.The problem is that that's really all there is, and there's not much running track. Like the original, it tries to stay "reality" grounded as a caper flick, but given this is a shorter movie, this goes on _way_ too long before you actually get to vampires.Once we get the first guy bit by a vampire, it moves along to "vampires rob a bank" and "vampires shoot it out with police." But...that's really about it. The writers seemed to have run out of ideas, and so we just get interminable variations on these two basic ideas. There is no real climax - the vampire bad guys are subsequently interchangeable, and the only really competent one (Jesus) gets killed before the formerly-dimwitted one. The ending is just one big shootout, prolonged by a convenient solar eclipse. Which is another pointless plot point - if you want vampires to be in the darkness, just keep them in darkness and have the sun come up normally. Adding the solar eclipse does nothing here. It's stuff like this which suggests the writers didn't know quite what they were doing.As for the Raimi-esque POV shots, a little goes a long way - something that Scott Spiegel should have learned from the master. It's kinda fun the first twenty times, but after that...Overall, I'd recommend it if you can catch it on the cheap. It's no classic, but it's mildly amusing.
4 out of 5 people found the following review useful: Removed from the context of its predecessor, it ain't a bad b-movie., 9 May 2002 Author: pickman (daiogoro@hotmail.com) from Minneapolis, usa
The special effects really do suck and the actors aren't first string, however fans of cheesy horror movies shouldn't be discouraged from checking this flick out. This is genuinely stylish with some ambitious camera work and some nice art direction touches. I think the director and the cinematographer might have been having a contest to see who could come up with the wierdest pov shot while they were shooting the picture. Also there are a few moments that are funny and border upon being clever. The porno film massacre scene had me chuckling when the donut guy got blown away. I also liked the opening Bruce Cambell(Hail to the King!) and Tiffany-Amber Thiessen elevator scene. The important thing with this movie is to forget about the first one. The first one was a kinetic, over the top, vamp slaughter-fest that was fun but hardly horror. This movie is not great, but still has the elements of a real low-budget horror movie aspiring to be something better.
9 out of 15 people found the following review useful: Cool Sequel, 16 May 2002 Author: kefkajr from Titty Twister
If Dimension wants to flex their video market muscles by making sequels to Dracula 2000 why don't they just make a FDTD 4.A fun little flick and almost as good as the original with some nice low-brow chuckles as well.Only complaint: Robert Patrick, Muse Watson, and Duane Whitaker aren't as intimidating as Tarantino and Clooney
2 out of 2 people found the following review useful: For a DTV, it's PDF!, 5 October 1999 Author: Robin Warder (r&pwarder@gbd.com) from Orangeville, Ontario, Canada
I obviously didn't have high hopes for "From Dusk Till Dawn 2" after its opening reel. Like the infamous "Congo", it makes the grave mistake of killing off the multi-talented Bruce Campbell in the first five minutes, and also does the same thing to Tiffani-Amber Thiessen, despite the fact that all the ads for the movie had mislead one into believing that she has a sizable role in it. The fact that their death scene has absolutely NOTHING to do with the main storyline doesn't help much either, but amazingly, "FDTD 2" eventually makes up for these miscalculations and becomes a surprisingly fun direct-to-video quickie. Whatever flaws it possesses are redeemed by the enthusiasm of the cast and the filmmakers, who probably realized that they were making an inconsequential film, but seemed to have had a ball doing so nonetheless. It's directed by Scott Spiegel, who co-wrote "Evil Dead 2" and has been a long-time associate of Sam Raimi's, and he gets help on the script from Duane Whitaker, who has a major role in the film and is probably best known for playing the bizarre pawn shop owner, Maynard, in "Pulp Fiction". The two of them may not have the same polish as a Quentin Tarantino-Robert Rodriguez combination, but they both have an obvious love for the genre and at the occasional moment in the film, some fresh new ideas to add to it.The original "From Dusk Till Dawn" was one of the most enjoyable genre efforts of the 90s, which unfortunately, received a lot of criticism from non-horror fans who thought that Tarantino's screenplay started off as a potentially interesting drama that sold out midway through, opting instead to become a over-the-top gorefest in the second half. Of course, most genre aficionados found those horror elements so entertaining that they didn't care at all about the detour in Tarantino's script. Of course, "FDTD 2" doesn't near measure up to its predecessor, but if there's one thing that it does to improve upon it, it's that it doesn't even try to pretend that it has the potential to be anything else, and just presents itself as a good ol' horror outing, mixed in with a fairly standard heist story. It also helps, however, that the characters are more sharply written and the dialogue is more witty than you'd expect for a flick of this kind. The fine B-movie cast somehow makes you care in spite of yourself, and by the time the movie reached its climactic bloodbath at the bank, I was surprised by how much I was into the film. But when all is said and done, what really matters is if the horror elements deliver, and Spiegel does just that, providing some very inventive death scenes and some show-off Raimi-esque camera work (including a neat point-of-view shot of a key going into a keyhole). Sure, the gore and the F/X aren't exactly up to the "Saving Private Ryan" level of realism, but it's not like they were that great in the original either. It's not the slickness of the production, but the enthusiasm and spirit of it all that matters. And since "From Dusk Till Dawn 2" has that kind of spirit and delivers what it promises, it comes across as a direct-to-video production that's pretty-damn-fun!
3 out of 4 people found the following review useful: Horrible, 19 August 2003 Author: jakob__haeger from Sweden
When I saw Quentin Tarantino`s and Robert Rodriguez`s From Dusk Till Dawn I was around 12 years old. And even today I think that that movie is one off the coolest ever made.But in 1999 I rented From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money, Directed by Scott Spiegel and written by Scott Spiegel and Actor/writer Duane Withaker.The first film is so cool because the first half is a gangster film, and then it just changes into a vampire film. This sequel also tries to do the same thing. But it fails.The original had George Clooney, Quentin Tarantino, Danny Trejo, Harvey Keitel, Juliette Lewis and Salma Hayek. The most knows actor in this film is Robert Patrick from The X-files. Also the crew is nothing like the original. Tarantino and Rodriguez is Exec. porudcers, but nothing more. The man at the helm is Spiegel most known for....well nothing.The SFX? THERE IS NO SFX. I mean the blood is so bad in the film, the could just as well used red paint.The direction is some of the worst I`ve ever seen. The camera angels is so f***ed up. They have placed the camera inside the mouth off a vamp. The script is so bad that I laugh out loud. Some of the dialouge is so bad, it coould be of been written by a ten year old.I mean really what can you expect from a film where the main cast consists of Robert patrick and Raimond Cruz?0/5 - Stay away!!!!!!!!
5 out of 8 people found the following review useful: Fangoria Geeks: Lighten up!, 29 May 1999 Author: matthew wilder (picqueur@aol.com) from matthew wilder
It goes the genre-blending of the original one better: it melds the heist movie, the vampire movie, and the good-ole-boy movie. The co-writer Duane Whitaker, who has made a number of witty and flavorfully scripted independent movies, is probably responsible for the Texas atmosphere, and the idiosyncracy of the gang of redneck layabouts who make up the cast. Despite the stripped-down special effects, you might feel grateful to the movie for being the first B picture in eons to feature actual characters. Robert Patrick is superb as the hero--who, in the fashion of the first film, seems convincingly about to be revealed as a hotheaded sociopath, then veers in a very different direction. Muse Watson as the safecracker C.W. and Bo Svenson, now ripened in late middle aged, is marvellous as the skeptical sheriff--he could play doubles with L.Q. Jones. The movie isn't much, but it has actors, characters and dialogue--three things that are by now extinct on the direct-to-video shelf.
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