From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)

I used to work at Blockbuster. One time while trying to recommend a movie to someone, I was asked why it is that I watch and collect so many older films. Granted, the person doing the asking was a vapid high schooler who, and I'm not joking here, refused to watch any movie that had been made more than 10 years ago on the basis of it "being old." They looked at me, head tilted to the side and said "Why would you watch that? It's old. I don't want to watch old movies." My answer was the suitably snide, condescending remark "Right, because they never made any good films until 2004." The sarcasm was dripping.

Of course the real answer as to why I am always playing catch up with older films is because there are just so many awesome ones out there that I haven't seen yet. Every time I pick up a title that I missed back in the day, I'm always secretly hoping that I'll be kicking myself for missing it earlier. Even better is when that one film leads to the discovery of the body of work of a director or actor I didn't even know about before, but find myself being a big fan of. It's like discovering an old friend you never knew you had.

And "From Dusk Till Dawn" most certainly fits that bill. Why, why, why...WHY IN THE NAME OF ZORDON did I never see this movie until 2013? I don't know how much I would have liked it back in the day, but after seeing it now I can safely say it's some of the most fun I've had watching a movie in a long time.

"From Dusk Till Dawn" is directed by Robert Rodriguez, famous for "Desperado," "Machete," "Planet Terror" among other hyper-violent bloodbaths which are ludicrously entertaining. He also does kids movies. He's not very good at them. Why he does both I have no idea. It's kind of weird. Anyway, Rodriguez is a director I like, and the screenplay was done by one of my all-time favorite writers, Quentin Tarantino, who also stars in the film. There is no way I'm not going to love this film.

From the very beginning of the film, which Rodriguez gives a hot, steamy, sweaty look right from the start, it's not difficult to imagine that this is a lost Tarantino film. The dialogue is punchy, funny, and so packed with fire coming from the mouths of the actors, all of whom are so good it's unreal, that the tension is through the roof and nearly unbearable. This is especially so in the first half of the movie, which plays out kind of like "Reservoir Dogs" mixed with "Natural Born Killers."

Oh yeah. There's no way this is a Tarantino movie with a shot like that.

The story begins in a gas station in Texas, as Texas Ranger Earl McGraw (a recurring Tarantino character played by the inimitable Michael Parks) stops by for a drink and a friendly chat with the attendant (a pre-"Deadwood" John Hawkes). What seems like random chit-chat takes a sudden, shocking turn as the bank-robbing Gecko Brothers, Seth and Richie (George Clooney and Quentin Tarantino respectively) show up to turn a relatively simple hostage situation into a bloodbath. Most of this is due to Richie being a total and irredeemable psychopath.

You know, not much is ever made about Tarantino as an actor, but he really deserves more credit for that than he gets. He's in almost all of his movies, but nobody ever really talks about how good he is when he shows up in any large capacity. His turn as Mr. Brown in "Reservoir Dogs" and Jimmy in "Pulp Fiction" were really good, but in "From Dusk Till Dawn" he really knocks it out of the park. He plays Richie so off-the-handle and so creepily evil that there's never any telling what in the hell he's going to do next. In fact he pretty much carries all the tension of the first half of the film by himself, and there's plenty of tension to be found.

Well, tension AND release...

Seth has to constantly do damage control for his brother, and Clooney is quite magnetic as the calmer, less overtly crazy brother. He'd still be a total scumbag no matter where he was, but next to Richie he's a pretty reasonable dude. Yeah, Seth set a guy on fire, but it was only after Richie started the whole mess. And once you account for Clooney's natural charm, you've got a character who is a villain, but a really likeable one, and you really want to see him make it. Tarantino plays a great character, but you can't help but constantly be amazed by how much Richie sucks, and you wouldn't be too sad if he bought it. In fact you're kind of waiting for it to happen. The biggest question is whether or not Seth is going to be the one to finally take him out or not.

"From Dusk Till Dawn" isn't really structured like an average three act film. It's more like two halves. The first half is vintage Tarantino, full of tension and fantastic dialogue as Seth and Richie kidnap a family and make them drive to Mexico and freedom from the police and FBI who's hot on their trail. The family is Jacob (Harvey Keitel), his daughter Kate (Juliette Lewis) and adopted son Scott (Ernest Liu). Jacob is a former preacher whose faith is shaken after losing his wife, and is on an indefinite road trip to clear his head. They go along with the Gecko brother's orders, but there's always the lingering doubt in both his and the audience's mind whether or not they'll be let go as promised at the end of the journey. This is especially so with Richie being insane and killing people over looks he imagined they had.

Not long after they reach their destination, a strip club in Mexico called "The Titty Twister," is when the movie begins the second half. And it's here that I will suggest, if you've never seen "From Dusk Till Dawn," and have no knowledge of it whatsoever, you stop reading IMMEDIATELY. Don't even watch the trailer. Don't look up any pictures of it. Don't do any research whatsoever. Don't even read the description on the back of the case or on Netflix. You need to go in blind because the second half of this film has one of the most radical, drastic and completely off-the-wall twists I've ever seen, and unless you've seen the trailer (which completely spoils it) there's no possible way you'd ever come close to imagining what's in store.

"Huh. Didn't see that coming."

I'm dead serious. Stop reading this and go watch "From Dusk Till Dawn" while 100% ignorant of it. Trust me, it'll be awesome.

I'm not even going to go into great detail about what actually happens on the off chance you're still reading. It's enough to say that during the blood-soaked climax of "From Dusk Till Dawn," there exists enough insanity for around 3 other films. Body parts fly everywhere, blood and other fluids of various colors and origin cover the place like varnish on a dresser, and the cheese is off the meter as "From Dusk Till Dawn" turns into something like a spiritual successor to "The Evil Dead." It's certainly a thing to behold.

The practical effects are skillfully done enough to be disgusting and corny enough to also be a comedic blast for those with a twisted sense of humor. This was also back before CGI blood was the standard, and action wasn't filmed with shaky cam to be "more intense," so there is also a lot of fun artistry to the carnage, harkening back to "The Thing" and once again, "The Evil Dead." There's just something special about seeing practical effects in front of the camera which lends an air of credibility and enjoyment for those of us who like seeing the creative process of film-making at work.

And of course this is all going down around a great cast, like everything Tarantino is involved in. The leads are all still there, but added to the fray once we arrive at the strip club are horror movie legend Tom Savini, NFL and B-movie hero Fred Williamson, Robert Rodriguez BFF Danny Trejo, and finally Cheech Marin in one of the three parts he plays in this film. Selma Hayek even shows up to do some sexy dancing. What's not to like?

"Well this was fun. I'm going to go lay down now."

From the first frame of "From Dusk Till Dawn" to the last, I was glued to the screen. I love this movie. Anyone looking to have a good, bloody time is going to love it. Some may prefer one half over the other, in fact I kind of like the first half more, but they're so vastly different that one can almost look at them as two different films all together. Almost like "Well, that movie's done. That was really tense. Too bad it didn't have much of an ending. Oh well. Let's watch this crazy gory splatterfest next! That's going to be a lot of fun! And hey, it's got the same cast. Neat!"

In fact...holy crap. Flip those two around in terms of order of sequence and cram it into an hour and a half and you've essentially got "From Dusk Till Dawn!"

THE BOTTOM LINE - I'm so upset that I came to this one late, because it's probably one of my favorite movies from the 90's now. In terms of blood, guts, laughs and awesome Tarantino dialogue, few things can top "From Dusk Till Dawn" outside of an actual Quentin Tarantino movie. One of the best action films of that decade. I just wish it hadn't been spoiled for me all those years ago when I saw the trailer. Seeing it blind would have been amazing.

Django Unchained (2012)

Quentin Tarantino is one of my favorite directors of all time. Even though his films aren't so much homages as they are love letters to exploitation films from the 70's, which detractors might mistakenly call unoriginal, one can't deny the air of fun uniqueness and distinct style that surrounds his work. It's always instantly clear that you're watching a Tarantino film. Few directors have a strong enough sense of style to give credence to auteur theory, but Tarantino makes a strong case for it.

See? That's what minoring in film gets you. The ability to use words like "auteur."

The thought of Tarantino tackling a western is a spark of brilliance so bright it could be used to light up Wrigley Field. Even his movie set in World War II, "Inglorious Basterds," felt vaguely like a western in many regards, at least to me. And "Kill Bill" couldn't get any more good ol' western vigilante justice if you stuck Charles Bronson's Stetson on Uma Thurman. It just seemed like a perfect fit. But honestly, I didn't care what it was about or even where they set it. It's a Tarantino flick. I'm going to enjoy myself.

When I heard about the run-time for "Django Unchained," I must admit to being a bit nervous. I felt "Inglorious Basterds" suffered from an over-abundance of love for its own dialogue, and could have been easily trimmed by a half hour without losing much. So when the length of "Django Unchained" turned out being 12 minutes longer than "Inglorious Basterds," you can understand my concern. But much like "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" I still reasoned that even if it were too long, you're still getting good stuff, so it can't be that bad.

You know you want to see whatever film contains this...

And hey presto, what do you know? I did greatly enjoy myself at "Django Unchained." That was not surprising. Tarantino is nothing if not consistent. What did surprise me was that "Django Unchained" is probably his most streamlined and fast moving film since "Reservoir Dogs" or "Pulp Fiction," and goes by the quickest of any since then despite being the longest one he's ever made. Hell, even "Reservoir Dogs" hits a speed bump at the hour mark when we get Tim Roth's flashback, and "Pulp Fiction" is just so much story to process that it can feel like a long sit on occasion. "Django" never hit a single hiccup in the breakneck pace of its nearly 3 hour narrative.

Jamie Foxx plays the eponymous Django, a slave in 1858 Texas who has been separated from his wife, another slave named Broomhilda (Kerry Washington). Enter Dr. King Schultz, a former dentist turned bounty hunter played by Christoph Waltz, who sets Django free to use him to identity his former owners, who have a bounty on their heads. Later seeing that Django possesses a natural talent for killing, Schultz takes him under his wing to become his partner in bounty hunting, under the promise that they will eventually find and rescue Django's wife.

And kill white people. That's cool, too.

Following several leads, they eventually find that Broomhilda has been sold to a slave owner named Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio), who runs a plantation named "Candieland." Infiltrating his operation under the guise of mandingo merchants (a fictional form of Romanesque entertainment where two slaves fight to the death, something Candie is particularly fond of), Django and King attempt to dupe Candie and buy her off him, all without arousing his suspicions. To do that they'll have to deal with Candie's sadistic streak as well as Stephen, the leery head house-slave, played by Tarantino standby Samuel L. Jackson. And as one can extrapolate by the fact that it's a Tarantino movie, it will all end in a whole lot of blood.

The thing that's great about Tarantino movies is that while the stories may not always be anything overly special, its the characters that populate them that are always worth the price of admission. The fact that he always gets incredible actors to portray them is just icing on the cake. "Django Unchained" is no exception, as every single last person in this movie knocks it out of the park, and like any Tarantino film, this is a film with a lot of overt and hidden star power, with bit parts by everyone from Michael Parks, Don Johnson, Bruce Dern and Jonah Hill to Franco Nero, the original Django, who plays the guy at the bar you saw in the trailer.

Ah ha! That whole "The 'D' is silent" / "I know" exchange of dialogue makes sense now, doesn't it?

Jamie Foxx I've never been overly keen on as an actor, but he was admittedly great as Django. He has his quieter moments along with the rage-filled coldness of his more murderous endeavors which balance him out and make him more than just a walking ball of revenge. The scene that stands out for me is a moment when Schultz is lecturing him on not going too far overboard and being too cruel in portraying a black slaver. Django replies that he's simply doing what Schultz told him to do, and embracing the darkness that comes with not only their line of work, but the mission they're attempting. To Django, getting Broomhilda back is worth losing that humanity.

But apart from Jamie Foxx, there were two actors who threatened to run away with this film, and for every moment they are on screen, they did. The first one was Christoph Waltz. Tarantino made Waltz a known name in Hollywood when he cast him as Hans Landa in "Inglorious Basterds," a role he rightly won an Oscar for, and at this point Christoph better be writing Quentin into his will because he's given him another role that is arguably even better. And if he doesn't get another nomination for it I'll be shocked, and if he doesn't get another win it will be a crime.

Dr. King Schultz is potentially my favorite movie character from this year. The calm, cool, and funny demeanor that only Waltz seems capable of conveying just oozes off the screen like he's some kind of freaky snake charmer, and we're all the cobra in the basket swaying along to his flute. Yes, he's a cold-blooded killer without any remorse for anything he does, but he's so damn charming at the same time. Much like Hans Landa was, in fact, but this time he's not a Nazi, so you don't feel quite so bad smiling with him over his jubilant glee at own depravity. In addition, I always got a kick out of the running gag that he constantly apologizes for being difficult to understand as English is not his native tongue, despite being far more eloquent in his speaking of the language than any of the hicks he comes across.

This man is your savior. He acts for your sins.

Whenever Waltz is on the screen, he is the locomotive that drives the film full speed ahead, energizing even the smallest, most laid back scene with not only charm and humor but also suspense, which comes into even greater play whenever the other show-stopper appears to inject some slimy evil into the narrative in a role that plays fantastic counter to one of the best heroes of the year - one of, if not THE best villain of the year: Leonardo DiCaprio as Calvin Candie.

I've been waiting for Leonardo DiCaprio to finally turn in an intimidating performance that I completely bought hook, line and sinker, and he blew me away in this movie. I absolutely loved DiCaprio in "Django Unchained." I'm trying really hard to think of a better villain I've seen this year, and it's really difficult to do so. The great thing about Candie is that at first, we only get hints at his psychosis. We know he's a cruel, arrogant bastard right from the get go, as the first time we see him he's cheering on two slaves fighting to the death for his amusement in one of the most difficult scenes in the film to watch, but it isn't until Django and Schultz's deception is revealed to him that we see his inner beast unleashed. The "Skull Scene," as I'll call it will, I believe, go down in film history as one of the defining moments in Tarantino's filmography, and in DiCaprio's career.

Oh good lord...you don't even know the insanity unless you've seen it.

There are few movies I would recommend based on the power and suspense of one scene on its own, especially when that movie is nearly 3 hours long, but I'm serious when I say that the Skull Scene is worth the price of admission by itself, and people who've seen "Django Unchained" know exactly what I'm talking about. It's not only DiCaprio's finest moment in a film showcasing him at his absolute best, it's one of the best scenes Tarantino has ever written. It's right up there with Big Kahuna Burger.

A lot of people talked about the opening scene from "Inglorious Basterds" as unbearably intense. I honestly didn't feel that way. I thought it was a good scene, but from the very beginning I knew exactly how it was going to end. Hans Landa was going to find that Jewish family under the floorboards and kill them. With the Skull Scene, I had NO IDEA what Candie was going to do, and it was insanely tense. It was pins and needles and edge of my seat and gnawed off fingernails. This is what other people must have felt during the opening of "Inglorious Basterds." To me, this was a far superior, and far more suspenseful scene. If you thought Hans Landa's introduction was intense, man are you in for a ride.

Here's your conductor.

Much fuss has been made about the violence in "Django Unchained," and yes it's true that there is a good deal of it. This may not be Tarantino's bloodiest film, as I'm pretty sure "Kill Bill Vol. 1" still holds that record, but the violence that is in this film is overall more difficult to watch. The mandingo scene in particular is a really hard pill to swallow. That being said, they could have gone way further than they did. Suffice to say that I was glad they left a scene were a man gets torn apart by dogs mostly up to our imaginations, which is probably more effective in the long run away.

The other thing that has people in a tizzy is the language. Professional offended person Spike Lee has gone on record saying he refuses to watch the movie because it disrespects his people by using the dreaded "n word" a lot. I'm comfortable in saying three things about Spike Lee. The first thing is that he needs to shut the hell up, just as a general rule. The second thing is that he's an idiot by judging the movie without even seeing it. The third thing is that he's an idiot if he's under the impression that people didn't use "the n word" a whole hell of a lot back in 1858 MISSISSIPPI. So yeah. Basically Spike Lee is a bigoted idiot who needs to shut the hell up. And not remake "Oldboy."

"Django Unchained," much like the rest of Tarantino's work, is difficult to talk about without writing a novel. It's probably enough to say that if you liked anything he's ever done in the past, this is going to be much of the same quirky, homage laden fun that you've seen before. If you're not a fan of his style, well I can't say that you'll like it, but know that he doesn't go quite as overboard with the long sequences of gratuitous dialogue that has become his calling card as he's done in the past. That seems to be people's biggest complaint with him. But there aren't any scenes like the opening of "Reservoir Dogs" or the bar scene in "Inglorious Basterds" or anything like that in this film. The dialogue has a bit more purpose and stays on point the whole time. So there's that for anyone who dislikes that excessive Tarantino indulgence. I kind of missed it, however.

And you know, being from Europe, Schultz could have told us what they call a quarter-pounder in Germany.

"Zay cool it eine Viertel Gewichtseinheit mit Käse."

THE BOTTOM LINE - "Django Unchained" was a delight. A wonderful, cream-filled pastry of delight. It was the fastest 2 hours and 45 minutes I've sat through this year, and I wanted it to keep going at the end. I'm a huge mark for this movie, naturally, as I said to my friend as the music played over the opening shot and title card "I already love this movie," but I think that my opinion isn't too far off the mark for the average viewer. It's violent, brutal, and can be really tough to watch at times because of that, but that's the point. And aside from that the characters are so much fun, led by Oscar worthy performances by both Waltz and DiCaprio, that I find it unthinkable that a person watching wouldn't have an absolute blast. This is Top 10 of 2012 material for sure.