Wolff rating: UNSURPASSED
Plot summary: Two escaping criminals use a preacher and his family to get across the border.
Biased, pithy comments: Rodrieguez can film a fight like nobody else. Tarantino can write edgy, violent scenes and characters like nobody else. Put them together, and you should have something explosive. Actually, in this movie, you do, but it appeals really only to people who are fans of both of these, and also those who want to see the video game ``Doom'' filmed in a nail-biting sort of way. The writing, though an elegant tense-fest of characters at odds with themselves and their intentions (especially the strange relationship Clooney has with Tarantino), shifts gears suddenly halfway through the movie, and it becomes something straight out of ``Evil Dead 2''. For me, that was great. I loved ``Evil Dead'' and high-quality knockoffs thereof, so seeing this very high budget thriller left my adrenal glands screaming by the end of this one. People who didn't like ``Evil Dead'', thought ``Pulp Fiction'' was annoying, and tend to need time out to breathe during the second reel won't like this show. I thought it was great---a movie exactly in tune with the 16-year-old horror buff in me. Smart, supernatural, and chock full of Rodrieguez killer killing set-pieces.
How many times I have seen it: x2
Starring: George Clooney, Quentin Tarantino, Harvey Keitel, Juliette Lewis
Directed by: Robert Rodriguez