Back in the day I used to take things I would record on VHS tape and to save the best stuff I would transfer them over to another VHS tape for safe keeping. Sometimes I transferred things from Betamax tapes to VHS. Yeah, I had Beta before VHS that's how ancient I am. So, as I would transfer from tape to tape the integrity of the tape quality would lessen with each transfer until the tape was virtually useless. This volume of FDTD is the movie version of the third or fourth tape transfer I would make. It’s hardly recognizable as something that is connected to the original.
The fact that this is a prequel does help, a little, I guess. Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez are both credited as executive producers and Rodiquez gets a Story credit but I have to believe that it’s in name only. The film is directed by P.J. Pesche, who also directed Lost Boys 2 and Smoking Aces Part 2, both are also films that probably shouldn’t have been made or at least didn’t need to be made. Michael Parks plays Ambrose Bierce, and this film tries to give a fictional account of his life after he joined Pancho Villa’s army in 1913. Marco Leonardi plays Johnny Madrid, a criminal who escapes the hangman with the help of Reece (Jordana Spiro). Madrid also brings along Esmerelda, the hangman’s daughter, see the title wasn’t lying. They, along with Parks run into Mary and John Newlie (Rebecca Gayheart and Lennie Lofton), two bible thumpers who he takes as hostages.
While making their getaway the group finds an establishment that seems to be half bar/half hotel but it’s an early version of The Titty Twister. Even Danny Trejo is there as the bartender Razor Charlie again. While at the bar Bierce meets Ezra Taylor (Orlando Jones) a traveling salesman. Mary and John Newlie meet the barmaid Quixtla played by Sonia Braga. Quixtla may or may not be related to the character played by Salma Hayek from the first film, for all I know it might be the same character. Soon after they arrive night falls and then the fun begins. Or should I say that is when all the shit I couldn’t stand happens in the film. All the vampires sound like cats fighting when they are in human form. When they change to bat form, they sound like whimpering dogs when they are killed. Enough callbacks to the original to make this better than the second one but not by much. I will give this two and a half anal expulsions out of five.
Wow! Didn't even know this existed (and, as you say, it probably shouldn't). Of course, I didn't know the SECOND one existed either so . . . .
ReplyDeleteYeah see when you compare this to the first one as well as comparing the second film in the trilogy to the first film as well; it would definitely seem neither this or the second one is needed.
Delete