Actually, a lot of people will hate half of the movie and like the other half. Those who loved the invention of Tarantino's dialog in "Pulp Fiction" will like the first half, especially a brilliant pre-title sequence featuring Michael Parks as a Texas Ranger who creates a whole world out of a little dialogue. Those who liked the shoot-outs in Rodriguez's "El Mariachi" and "Desperado" will like the second half, which is non-stop mayhem in a scuzzy bikers' and truckers' strip joint, with lots of vampires, exploding eyeballs, cascading guts, and a weapon made out of a powered wooden stake (I guess you could call it a Pneumatic Vampire Drill).
I liked the first half best. After the title sequence, we get to know the central characters, Seth and Richard Gekko (George Clooney and Tarantino). They've robbed a bank and left a trail of dead and wounded (all toted up by a TV news reporter's digital carnage readout). Richard has helped Seth break out of prison, and now they're heading for the Mexican border with the bank loot, and Richard, who is a rabid loony, is blasting everyone in sight, including innocent bystanders.
Holed up in a sleazebag motel, they take hostages: a former Baptist minister (Harvey Keitel) and his children (Juliette Lewis and Ernest Liu). The minister has left the church after the death of his wife, leaving an opening for another of Tarantino's passages of theological dialog. Now the minister and his kids are heading south in a mobile home the Gekkos hope to hide in while crossing the border.
The minister is inclined to cooperate with the desperadoes. His son thinks he knows better: "Dad -- I watch the reality shows!" The charm of the dialog in these scenes has a lot of competition from the state-of-the-art mayhem, which leaves blood and brains spattered everywhere. Rodriguez doesn't make it very real, though, wisely handling the death of a harmless bank teller in flashes too quick to be seen, since more detail would sink the macabre mix of violence and humor.
In Mexico, the mobile home wheels up to the Titty Twister, a scroungy strip joint with a bizarre decor (this goes next door to Jack Rabbit Slim's in the Tarantino Mall). The doorman is played by Cheech Marin, who also plays two other roles, popping up to often he doesn't need the vampire plot to qualify as undead. The kidnappers and their victims go inside to await a rendezvous for a money drop, and that's when the vampire plot begins.
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