Definitely not Joss Whedon's vampires...

I watched From Dusk Till Dawn tonight and it was quite the movie.  Besides the fact that George Clooney is just so damn cool in almost anything he's in, it was fun to see a bank-robbery-brothers-on-the-lam movie get turned into a vampire movie.  When the vampires showed up about 2/3rds of the way through the movie, I found myself thinking--"what would this movie have been like if we hadn't known there were going to be vampires in it?  What kind of kick-ass surprise would that have been?"  Too bad we always have to have movie trailers that give away all the best bits of movies.

But perhaps I've seen too much Buffy The Vampire Slayer because the vampires were really bloody and gross and not at all what I've become accustomed to a certain plucky blond staking.  For one thing, the makers of the movie obviously subscribed to the zombie theory of vampirism--which means that all it takes is a bite from a vampire (and not necessarily in the jugular either) to become one yourself.  Hello!  These are neither zombies nor werewolves and most "authoritative" sources (i.e. Buffy and Anne Rice) require the vampire to drink the victim's blood and then the victim to drink the vampire's blood before the transformation can occur.  Otherwise, think of all the vampires we'd have running around!

And when they staked these vampires, they didn't just crumble into dust leaving behind no trace of the monster.  These things melted a la the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark and exploded right and left leaving blood and guts all over the place.  Not appetizing at all.  But I guess that wasn't exactly the angle they were after. *shrug*

So it was a good movie, but it's going back to Netflix.  The next three movies coming are The Matrix: Revolutions, The Bourne Identity and The Butterfly Effect.  Have I mentioned how much I love Netflix?

And check out this site for some more good stuff on vampires and zombies.