Dayton Daily News from Dayton, Ohio • 54

QUI I The lizards become prey in darkly humorous 'From Dusk Till Dawn' 3 demise is no great loss, Unfortunately, the entire convoluted exercise is simply an excuse for the film's splatter- soaked finale, which is neither as frightening or as funny as the movies that inspired it. along for the ride. As writer, Tarantino puts his character front-and-center for a provocative table dance by the voluptuous, shape-shifting Santanico Pandemonium (Salma Hayek). As an actor, his hasty post-dance The E.R. will seem lame to Clooney after all this violence.

From Dusk Till Dawn Director ROBERT RODRIGUEZ; Starring: HARVEY KEITEL, GEORGE CLOONEY, QUENTIN TARANTINO, JULIETTE LEWIS; 108 minutes; BEAVERCREEK, CROSS POINTE, DAYTON MALL, HUBER HEIGHTS, SALEM AVENUE RS Strong violence and gore, language and nudity 'SJ fen fn Good Poor kick-k Excellent Fair BY DAVE LARSEN Dayton Daily News nect with Carlos. The meeting place is a sleazy, rock-'n'-roll strip joint, open as its garish neon sign declares from dusk till dawn. The hours suit the club's staff as well as its rowdy clientele they're vampires, more bloodthirsty than even the Geckos. The film's villains suddenly become its protagonists as they and the Fullers fight through the night to stay alive. And From Dusk Till Dawn becomes a grue-somely hilarious gore fest.

Tarantino's sinister wit is evidenced by darkly humorous scenes such as a burning store clerk falling into a display of popcorn with obvious results and the Fullers' makeshift arsenal of holy-water-filled condoms. Rodriguez, whose credits include El Mariachi and Desperado, is no stranger to bullets and blood, and he lets both fly with stylish aplomb. But the pair often get carried away with grossing out the audience and fail to develop the story or characters beyond a basic outline and thumbnail sketches. ER hunk Clooney is the most solid presence as the likably bad Seth, but Tarantino regulars Keitel and Lewis are merely nOOOODnn t's pretty much common knowledge by now that writer-director Quentin Tarantino learned his craft as a video-store clerk. From Dusk Till 11 A DANBARR1 DANBARRY CINEMAS Dayton's most Modern and Luxurious 12 Screen Movie Entertainment Center THE BLOCKBUSTER A SUPERB THRILLER.

OF THE YEAR! mst xr ASSASSINS (PG13) 1:30,4:00,7:00, 9:30, 12:00 (R) 1:20,4:00,7:20, 10:00 (R) 1 :00, 3:10, 5:20, 7:40,9:50,10:00 (pG) 2:00,4:25,7:10, 9:35,12:00 am, appropriately enough, is a messy amalgamation of the B-movies he watched behind the counter. The film, written by Tarantino and directed by independent action auteur Robert Rodriguez, combines the gangster-on-the-lam genre with gory fright flicks. What starts as a buddy version of Tarantino's Natural Born Killers screenplay ends up as an over-the-top homage to Sam Raimi's Evil Dead series. The bank-robbing Gecko brothers (George Clooney and Tarantino) are leaving a bloody trail across Texas as they head for the Mexican border with a briefcase full of cash. With TV news reporters tallying their body count, and police and FBI agents in hot pursuit, making their morning rendezvous with the mysterious Carlos (Cheech Marin) appears unlikely.

Until, that is, the Geckos happen upon the Fuller family (Harvey Keitel, Juliette Lewis and Ernest Liu) en route to Mexico in their new mobile home. They kidnap the Fullers and slip across the border, promising to set the family free once they con 7 mm (G) 1:30,3:20,5:15, i 7:10,6:50,10:30 (G) 1 :30, 3:20, 5:15, 7:10,6:50,10:30 COMING-OF-AGE SINCE 'STAND BY ME'," MOW and mi piu hi v-i (PG-13) '1 :00,3:10, 5:20, 7:40,9:50,12:00 (R) 2:00, 4:20,7:10, 9:30,11:50 (R) 1:10,3:20,5:25, 7:30,9:45, 11 50 JAN. 19 The war begins at 8 p.m. von i mui ine Diamond uou King uirui iiiiii 1001 Shiloh Springs Rd. mm mm.

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