From Dusk Till Dawn / From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		0.5
Video		1.0
Audio		2.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		1.0

From Dusk Till Dawn / From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money Blu-ray Movie Review

One of the worst followups ever earns a subpar Blu-ray release.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman May 13, 2011

Note: This review covers only 'From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money,' and all scores represent only its half of this Blu-ray release. For a review of the original 'From Dusk Till Dawn,' which is available separately from Echo Bridge, please click here.

This movie's very low quality.

Add another to the list of superfluous sequels and flawed follow-ups. From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money is not only in contention for longest movie title, it's also a front-runner for one of the worst Horror films of recent vintage and one half of a pair that's seen one of the single-biggest drop-offs in quality between one film and the next in the line. Director Scott Spiegel's film has quite a bit going on, and none of it's particularly good. It's not a surprise that a "sequel" -- this is not really a sequel, really, just a picture in the same general style with a similar title and with a carryover character and location -- was green-lit after the success of the wonderful Quentin Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez Horror flick that was released a few years prior. After all, this is the era of the direct-to-video cash-in, and while there's nothing wrong with the studio making a few bucks off of a movie and milking a franchise for all its worth, it would be nice from a fan's perspective if the end result were actually worth paying for. From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money is an almost unwatchable, sloppily-assembled, poorly-scripted, badly-acted, dully-directed, and flat-out ugly film that's not even in the same universe as its predecessor in any area.

Gather 'round for a look at our Blu-ray.

Luther Hecks (Duane Whitaker) is a dangerous criminal who's just escaped from prison and is a fugitive from justice. Police interrogate one of his known accomplices, Buck (Robert Patrick), but to no avail; Buck plays it cool and, even as he receives a phone call from Luther with the police in his house, he avoids giving the criminal up. Good thing, too, because Luther has a foolproof plan to knock off a Mexican bank. He only needs Buck and a few other friends to complete the job. Buck recruits rodeo clown C.W. Niles (Muse Watson); dogfighter Jesus (Raymond Cruz); and two-bit, fresh-faced security guard Ray Bob (Brett Harrelson) to fill out the team and pull off the perfect crime. Buck and his three amigos cross the border and hole up in a sleazy hotel as they await Luther's arrival, but the criminal mastermind is sidetracked when a bat strikes his car and disables it. He seeks help from a nearby tavern called "The Titty Twister" where his confession of killing the bat is met with disdain from the bartender (Danny Trejo) who has a particular affinity for bats and is about to unleash a whole new kind of hell on Luther and his friends that will have them all longing for the safety and security of prison life.

From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money opens with what can only be described as an excessively overlong, dull, and structurally pointless vampire bat attack on a guy and a girl in an elevator. The movie gets no better. The script is incredibly weak and nowhere near as smart and snappy as Tarantino's writing that made the first movie so fantastic; that's not a surprise, but the sheer level of banality is revealed with rapidity and the film never comes close to achieving anything that could be considered to be worthy of the From Dusk Till Dawn title. Worse, the movie is incredibly slow to develop, the action is laborious, and the movie isn't even cheesy fun, instead playing out with a matter-of-fact tedium that goes from one scene to the next with the only real purpose of moving the story along. Unfortunately, that's the only positive to come from this script; it makes sense at a basic storytelling level, as in A results in B results in C. Otherwise, it's boring to no end, and the stale direction and awfully cheap appearance both further hinder a film already on the precipice of classically awful.

Indeed, From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money's absolute worst trait may be its overwhelming sense of cheapness. The film looks like it was made for about the price of a well-worn used car, and most of that money probably went to pay Robert Patrick. The Titty Twister bar looks nothing like what was seen in the original; granted it was in need of some clean-up after From Dusk Till Dawn and might have conceivably undergone a few cosmetic changes, but this is a poor replication of the original classic any way it's sliced. The special effects are about ten years out of date, with the Vampire kills looking like the same process used to create the melting bodies and general gore in the The Evil Dead. That film was made on shoestring budget, too (and From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money even features a Bruce Campbell cameo; it's too bad he's not in the entire movie), but the difference, of course, comes back to quality of script, strength of idea, and sheer desire to make a good picture. From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money looks more like it's being made because it has to be made, not because the cast and crew want to make it, which seems to be a primary culprit in why the film plays with such a lackadaisical tone hanging over it.

From Dusk Till Dawn / From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money arrives on Blu-ray sharing a 25GB disc with another full-length film. As expected, the results are less than stellar. This 1080p, 1.78:1-framed transfer is soft and fuzzy, sporting almost no definition to speak of, and certainly nothing to set it apart as a high definition image compared to even the most modest DVD release. Colors are dull and worn out and the film favors a heavy reddish/brown tint, looking almost as if the whole thing was shot with some heavy filter over the lens. Black crush is readily evident, as is some edge enhancement, and extremely heavy blocking and sloppy color gradations are the norm. The image does clear up once or twice, just enough to squeeze out the odd facial texture, but otherwise this transfer is borderline unwatchable from the top down.

From Dusk Till Dawn / From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money makes its Blu-ray debut with a competent DTS-HD MA 2.0 lossless soundtrack. The track can be heavy and energetic -- it never lacks in volume at reference levels -- but it's never exactly clear and crisp. The track manages to offer up a good sensation of swarming bats early in the movie despite the limitations of the two-channel presentation. Ambience is a non-factor, but a few more noticeable sound effects are delivered with a fair bit of clarity, whether a cacophony of ringing telephones in one scene or a barrage of gunfire late in the movie that's both aggressive and suitably strong at the low end, but lacking clarity both at the business end of the gun where firing pin hits primer or bullets impact various metallic and hard surfaces. Dialogue is routinely steady, never dropping out and remaining firmly planted in the center channel. This isn't a top-tier track, but it suffices given the material and is easily this release's best attribute.

From Dusk Till Dawn / From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money contains no bonus features.

From Dusk Till Dawn / From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money is so far removed from its predecessor that even calling it a sequel "in name only" is to foul the good name of Robert Rodriguez's original. The script is terrible, the direction is awful, the acting is bland, the special effects are nothing to brag about, the pace is sluggish, the characters are boring, and the story has no soul. Unfortunately, the Blu-ray is not really any better. The soundtrack is adequate (not that the film's sound design really gives it anything much to work with), but the picture quality is subpar and the extras are, well, there are no extras. Fans who just have to have this on Blu-ray might as well pick up this double-pack since it contains the original film, too, and that release is at least tolerable. Otherwise, this is one to avoid.