Full Tilt Boogie

This is a really good and informative feature length documentary on the making of From Dusk Till Dawn. It covers most aspects of the film making process...Interviews with all of the cast and crew, following them around during filming and off hours from start to finish. Having to deal with issues like unions, paparazzi, weather, long hours, and unexpected fires...yet they all seem to love what they're doing.

*** (Out of 4)

I just purchased the Collector's Edition of "From Dusk Till Dawn" about a week ago, and last night finally got around to viewing the "Full Tilt Boogie" documentary, which details the making of the project from conception to post-production. Star/writer Quentin Tarantino, director Robert Rodriguez, stars George Clooney and Harvey Keitel and producer Lawrence Bender all give their insight into the making of one of the '90s' most "cult"-heavy flicks.

Personally I'm not a huge fan of the movie, I think it's good because it's unique - something that doesn't really come out of Hollywood very often: a movie where you don't know what is going to happen next, and when you think you do...you're wrong.

It's a thriller in the vein of "Pulp Fiction" that suddenly shifts into comedy, then into slapstick, then back into crime thriller, then into horror, then into comedy... it never stops and really is an original film.

The documentary details the making of the film and opens at a comic book convention (Fangoria) where Rodriguez and Tarantino are being interviewed about their upcoming project.

From then it starts back at the beginning and goes through the entire process.

It's not a great documentary but it is a good one with insightful interviews and a comprehensive scope. I don't really think the film as a whole warrants any kind of "classic" treatment - the DVD is worthy of a finer picture some might say - but considering some of the awful five-minute HBO making-ofs that are on TV all the time nowadays, "Full Tilt Boogie" is a return to form.

The idea of watching a documentary about the making of From Dusk Till Dawn that's almost as long as From Dusk Till Dawn was intriguing, and I'd say that for about an hour, it was really good. It wore out its welcome after a while, though, and I got a bit tired of how it rambled on throughout the final half-hour or so. It might not help that it starts in such a ridiculous and fun way, and then doesn't quite keep that level of energy up. It also ignores certain people involved with the movie in a way that felt a bit odd, and there's also not much consistency in what it chooses to go in-depth on. Some parts are super interesting, while other parts of the documentary prove repetitive.

It's an odd beast of a making-of-documentary. A lot of it's close to very good, but other parts wore me down a bit.

I came across this documentary when I rented the DVD at Blockbuster. At first, I thought this would be another one of those HBO Special BS that companies usually slap on their DVDs, but from the beginning when Clooney and Tarantino were walking about the set along to the BeeGees, I was hooked. This wasn't the polished crap that I was used to, this was a full-out documentary that explored every aspect of film making. Instead of just interviewing the actors and the director, FTB interviewed the ADs, the grips, the runners, catering, the assistants, and many, many electricians. Instead of exploring about what went right in the movies, this explored what went wrong, and how the filmmakers fixed these problems. The budget problems, issues with the set design, "union troubles," all of it was there. This was the real stuff. Sure it might be a lil' long, but it was refreshing to see what REALLY goes on behind the scenes.

This film comes included with the From Dusk Till Dawn Collectors Series DVD and it is quite a find. This isn't just about how someone did this or blah blah blah did that, this film is a real tribute to the entire crew of the film and the comradry that forms between them all on the set as well as off it. The film is basically a journey through the production of From Dusk Till Dawn from problems with the unions to sandstorms and burning sets to dealing with George and Quintin on set, which I might add, make one crazy pair (God I love that opening scene). Will you learn anything important about film-making? I'd say it's hard not to walk away from this a little more knowledgeable about the sheer heart and determination put in by people who's names you'd probably never give a second glance to but they deserve more than just a crawl by mention in the end credits and that's what this film gives them. So if you liked From Dusk Till Dawn... that doesn't necessarily mean you'll like this, BUT if you like going behind the scenes and hanging out with a film crew as they get drunk by a pool, I say you can't do any better than to go for the Full Tilt Boogie.