THIS is how to make a "stylistic" film!

Rating: 9/10 (12 April 2005)

I was not incredibly enthusiastic about seeing "Sin City". Lately there have been so many horrible films based solely around art direction ("Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" is the first one that comes to mind). Plot, characters, drama, tension, excitement, humor; all of these become lost when a film is based around a "look". Even some of those vaunted "film noir" films of the past ... well, frankly they suck. Bad acting, lame plots. I never saw what the interest was in them. They may have been fine for their time, but now they are just patently uninteresting.
I was very pleasantly surprised to see that "Sin City" is not one of those films.
This film has excitement; it has tension; it has very interesting characters; it has funny dialogue at times. In short, this is a fun (but violent) trip through a graphic novel.
Benicio Del Torro is an absolute hoot. Elijah Wood is an amazingly believable (and creepy) assassin. Bruce Willis is great ballsy cop on the edge of retirement. And the women! Wow, are they hot! I've always been big on Rosario Dawson, but ... wow! So many cast members are excellent in their roles, and they play it over-the-top like the characters they portray.
This is not a film for the kiddies, it is very violent, even gory at times. So it's clearly not for everyone. But if you like watching movies with a very dark edge, this is for you.
This is also a film based on 3-4 different story lines (like Pulp Fiction). Not everyone likes that, either, so if you like linear storytelling this isn't for you.
I do have to take off a few points here and there. Clive Owen's performance was pretty lackluster. And the edits between the various stories were too short, it ended up not flowing too well together at times.
But overall a good flick. 9 out of 10.
Barky