DE Special Assignments Editor

Advice for the day:never, under any circumstance, leave a movie early. Sometimes, viewers may find this advice hard to take, especially with so many recent movies that have had the hype of a masterpiece but end up having the appeal of eating cardboard (Waterworld, Strange Days).

But every once in a while, you will come across a movie that has an uncertain beginning, but ends up turning into something, well in the case of From Dusk Till Dawn, into something strange.

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Till Dawn is the third film by director Robert Rodriguez, who recently won fame with Desperado, starring Antonio Banderas, and the critically acclaimed independently made El Mariachi, which grossed $5 million with only a $7,000 budget.

But it is the highly unusual and violent, From Dusk Till Dawn, that will no doubt throw Rodriguez into the league with Quentin Tarantino and other independent film inspired protgs.

Tarantino and Rodriguez worked together on Desperado, Four Rooms and now Till Dawn. Even though Tarantino starred in and wrote Till Dawn, Rodriguez treats the script merely as one of the many tools he uses throughout the film.

The movie follows the story of the Gecko brothers, Seth (George Clooney from the TV show ER) and Richie (Quentin Tarrantino). Richie breaks Seth out of jail, they rob a bank and go on a killing spree in Texas while on their way to sanctuary in Mexico.

By way of taking of hostages and killing, the two make it to the rendezvous, a bar called the Titty Twister, where they are to meet their ally Carlos (Cheech Marin) sometime between dusk and dawn.

After that, things get weird. The rest of the movie can be interpreted as either poking fun at vampire movies or the screenwriter’s way of throwing in a huge twist to diversify an otherwise typical guns-and-guts movie.

Either way, Rodriguez and Tarantino have respectively won first and second place in the Mr. Unconventionality contest.

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What makes the movie interesting is the whole B-movie aspect that would otherwise characterize just another bad movie, if it was not for the creative cinematography,editing and acting. From the opening credits that layer in and out of each other as the two brothers head down the road, until the end, the movie is reminiscent of many Tex-Mex outlaw movies that somehow never manage to get boring, no matter how corny they are.

But most of all, it is the acting and dialogue that keep this movie from turning into a B-movie bust.

Harvey Keitel and Juliette Lewis perform roles that are far from past performances. Keitel plays a preacher, Jacob, who has lost his faith in God after the death of his wife. Lewis plays the part of Kate, the naive daughter of Jacob, who turns defender of the faith at the moment of truth.

Though both parts are far from their past characters (Keitel, Reservoir Dogs, and Lewis, Natural Born Killers), but both work well. Each creates a film presence that adds another twist to a deranged and decadent cast of characters.

But the biggest surprise is the part of Seth. Actors who have primarily been associated with television sometimes have trouble making the transition to the big screen. But Clooney makes the leap without falling and effectively portrays the notorious criminal who serves as the central character in the movie. Both brothers are ruthless, hard-core criminals that will do anything to get what they want. But Seth, unlike Richey, shows a compassionate side towards their hostages, and at the end becomes a hero in the fight against Mexican vampires. Clooney makes the back-and-forth transition without falling between the cracks.

But as far as the role of Richey goes, viewers will find out why Tarantino is an award-winning writer and director but not an actor. His character lacks diversity and interest, and Tarantino tries to make up for it by constantly being outrageous and violent.

However, Tarantino’s screenwriting falls in line with his prior movies such as Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs. Though the dialogue is entertaining, it lacks the tightness and wittiness viewers witnessed in his prior movies.

Though the movie is inventive and creative, do not go expecting to be inspired or provoked. Till Dawn is filled with cheap thrills and cheap people doing cheap things in a cheap country.