FROM DUSK TILL DAWN 2: TEXAS BLOOD MONEY (1999)
Starring Robert Patrick and Bo Hopkins
Kick-ass second installment in what looks to be the next great horror franchise. While buzz on the street about this film was that it sucked, it actually delivered all the goods horror fans could want. True, fans of the first who only watched it because Quentin Tarantino wrote it and George Clooney and Juliette Lewis starred, probably didn’t get this film. This is more of a straight-ahead, trashy horror film. But a damn fine straight-ahead trash horror it is.
There are no celebrity cast members this time around. The closest thing we get to a "name" actor is Patrick, who was the evil cyborg in "Terminator 2." He’s a sympathetic outlaw who hooks up with a band of fellow bad guys led by Duane Whitaker (an actor with "Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III" and "Tales From the Hood" to his credit) to rob a bank in Mexico.
Naturally things go terribly, terribly wrong when the crooks get mixed up with the vampires from the Titty Twister bar. As each person bitten becomes a vampire almost immediately after being bitten, you never know who’s a blood sucker and who isn’t. The horror scenes owe quite a bit to Dario Argento’s "Demons." The big pay-off at the end is the ultimate vampire gunfight with Mexican police. An incredible, unforgettable scene. Naturally, former enemies are forced to reconcile their differences to fight off the greater vampire threat, a basic theme of any FDTD movie.
Not as stellar as the third or first film, Part 2 nonetheless delivers the goods. Do check it out. Watch for Bruce Campbell in a small role.