Want A Little Gross-Out With Your Male Power Trip? (mild spoilers)

Rating: 5/10 (30 June 2006)

Sin City was a unique little film. Perhaps it was a little too pointlessly violent and 'male power trip' for my tastes. However, the middle segment with Mickey Rourke as a superhuman, disfigured antihero is well worth the price of admission.
I'd have enjoyed the Yellow Bastard sequence, but I have too much respect for Nick Stahl (who plays Ben Hawkins in one my favorite TV series, Carnivale) to appreciate this singularly-minded cardboard baddie. And it's really just yucky, gross-out, pointlessly disturbing, and not in a Lynchian sort of way. The kiddies watching R movies in secret might get a kick out it, I suppose.
My general displeasure with Sin City - The Film is a bit disappointing to me, because I enjoy and respect Frank Miller's work. But this was just too single-minded, no real depth. Just raw, unadulterated violence and gross-out scenes to make the weak-kneed cringe. Great for teenage kicks, but I'm a little older now, and probably just a bit bored of stylized, pointless violence.
Oh well. Another dud for me, I'm afraid. But I did enjoy the middle bit, so I'm giving it 5 stars.
I will definitely praise the day when Frank Miller's Batman gets to play out on the big screen. 'Arkham Asylum' the movie would be a real treat. If that happens, I'll probably be scraping my jaw off the floor in stupefied bliss.