Stylish Violence

Rating: Null/10 (1 April 2005)

Title: Frank Millers Sin City (2005)
Directors:Robert Rodriguez, Frank Miller and Quentin Tarantino
Cast: Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis, Owen Wilson, Jamie King, Jessica Alba, Rosario Dawson, Elijah Wood, Nick Stahl, Ving Rhimes, Rutger Hauer, Michael Madsen.
Review:
When Robert Rodriguez showed up on the movie scene with his low budget fast paced El Mariachi waay back in 1993 , everyone had to turn their heads and say "who is this crazy kid?". The he blew everyone away so to speak with his sophomore effort Desperado and his subsequent action packed vampire fest From Dusk Till Dawn. After that he made a few kiddie films (the Spy Kids series) and a down right horrible sequel to Desperado which I wont even mention. I sort of lost a bit of faith in Rodriguez and thought he was going on a downward spiral of bad movies. But low and behold, Rodriguez is back! Sin City is a masterpiece to be reckoned withall of Rodriguez's past sins have been forgiven and forgotten, his adaptation of Millers graphic novel is visually astounding and just plain fun movie! The movie develops three of Millers graphic novels. The first one called "That Yellow Bastard" is about an ex-cop who is hunting down a child rapist. The second one "The Big Fat Kill" is about a bunch of prostitutes who accidentally kill a cop and the battle that ensues, and "The Hard Goodbye" which is the story of Marv, a tough guy looking for the guy who killed the girl who gave him the night of his life. All the stories deal with the darkest, dirties, raunchiest type of people on the planet and the city that they inhabit, the fictional "Sin City".
Millers graphic novels have always been filled with lots of violence and beautiful art and this film is the cinematic equivalent of his novels. I literally felt like Millers novels had jumped out of the page and come to life! Most of the images in the film are exact replicas of Millers drawings. Frank Millers art is filled with lots of black and whites and no graysand this film has managed to duplicate that look in certain areas which gives the film its unique look. So from a visual standpoint be ready to see something that you have never seen before. The use of CGI here to create the city is exceptional and adds to the style of the film. This movie is over abundant in styleand a movie like that can sometimes go the way of the dodo when it comes to story or writing. Not so here. The script adheres so closely to Millers excellent writing that you don't have to worry about this movie being "Style over substance" because that is not the case here. The characters are very fleshed out and very comic book like in their attitude and expressions and the situations in which these characters get themselves into could only have been concocted by the sadistic and violent imagination of Frank Miller. Robert Rodriguez who is accustomed to directing stylish and violent movies was the most suitable person to adapt Millers work, this was a match made in heaven so to speak. This is film noir the way its meant to be...dark, dirty and sinfully fun.
The scumbags that inhabit Sin City are brought to life by a stellar cast! Mickey Rourke as Marv is amazing. Much like Ron Perlman was born to play Hellboy, so was Rourke born to play Marv, the man on a quest for revengekilling his way to the truth. By far Mickey Rourkes story is the most fast paced of all three and the most violent and entertaining. His dialog had me cracking up every five minutes, a tough guy to the very end. I was very impressed as well with Elijah Woods character! He didn't speak a word yet he emanated pure unadulterated evil. I also loved Benicio del Toro as Jackie Boy a cop who likes to hit his girl. Man he is supposed to be a cop, but the guy had one demented look on his face! And Nick Stahl as the "Yellow Bastard" was awesome as well, truly repulsive in nature and look. I enjoyed very much Bruce Willis's performance as Hartigan as well. His chemistry with Jessica Alba's character was great and their story felt very genuine. Needles to say, every performance on this one was excellent...you could tell this guys where having fun when they made this movie.
This movie had me cheering and grinning all the wayit reminded me of the good old days when a movie being "R" actually stood for something! I mean, Mickey Rourkes character says it the best when he says something like "this are the good old days, they are back, filled with blood and violence" man, he described my feelings for the film perfectly! This is a film that deals with violence like no other! If you are squeamish, do not attempt to see this one. There's decapitationsmutilations, dismemberment's, you name it and its here.
An excellent, fun and entertaining film every step of the way. Robert Rodriguez, you are back in my cool book man! This movie shot straight to the top of my top ten coolest movies of all time! I know there's more Sin City stories to be told because the total of Sin City graphic novels is 7 and on this movie only three of those stories where told, so bring it on, I wouldn't mind taking another trip to Sin City...what a place!
Rating: 5 out of 5