Overrated In Every Way

Rating: Null/10 (3 April 2005)

There's some kind of credit at the beginning of the film for "Special Guest Director: Quentin Tarantino." I mean, like it's not enough that every geeky comic book freak in the universe is going to be in line at this film opening night, Rodriguez has to create a bona fide spoogefest by offering up Tarantino's name like he's the "New Sucking Power" on Rodriguez's spiffy vacuum.
I'm all for shameless female nudity in movies, but Rodriguez trots out his actresses sort of like boxing promoters trot out ring girls between rounds. Hey, look, Rodriguez got the mom from "Spy Kids" to be butt-ass naked in a film. Then, the hooker played by Rosario Dawson is wearing a see-through top over a skin-colored piece of spandex and we're left to ponder the wording in her contract. Jaime King is naked. Jessica Alba isn't. It's kind of like breast roulette.
"Sin City" is not just an exercise in style over substance; it's a retread of a film that was itself a retread. Perhaps there's some lingo in postmodernism that would make that sound like an achievement, but I doubt it.