"I don't know about you, but I'm having a ball..."

Rating: 8/10 (20 June 2005)

"Sin City" finally proves that it is possible to make an entire living breathing movie through green screen and do it properly (as opposed to "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow") - it's "Dick Tracy" without the ego, it's Robert Rodriguez finally fully atoning for "From Dusk Till Dawn," it's... I'm gushing, aren't I? In keeping with this comic book/graphic novel/whatever adaptation's title, let's tie this in with the Seven Deadly Sins.
PRIDE: The characters in each story have their share of it - they may not be too proud of what they are, but they'll be damned if they'll let it drag them down into the morass. Marv, Dwight and Hartigan can all stand tall (or they would were it not for Dwight being the only one not dead by the end of the movie), and the female characters similarly won't let anyone push them around; even the sweet Nancy doesn't give That Yellow Bastard the satisfaction of screaming when he whips her brutally. Not a wimp in the bunch (well, maybe Becky).
ANGER: You bet. Marv's quest for vengeance for the dead Goldie; the Old Town Girls defending their turf; Hartigan not letting anyone hurt the little girl/grown woman he loves... there's fury all through this trip through Basin City. It's part of what fuels these characters, along with good old-fashioned love. Anger is also what may result from a few of the performances, but only a few (Michael Madsen is pretty one-note, even in this milieu, and Clive Owen's US accent is a bit dodgy, but otherwise the cast - Willis, Rourke, Boothe, Wood, even little parts like Michael Clarke Duncan and Josh Hartnett - is terrific all round.)
ENVY: This is more of an audience thing; viewers envying all the testosterone-dripping but yet still sensitive (in a way) men with hardware at the ready and macho voiceovers to spare, not to mention a city with no ugly women anywhere in sight. ("Sin City" is not exactly a chick flick, making Alexis Bledel the performer with the most diametrically opposed movies this summer - see also "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.")
LUST: With all due respect to female fans of Clive Owen and Benicio Del Toro, this is very much one for the men. Carla Gugino wearing nothing but a thong. Barmaid Brittany Murphy (the only cast member to appear in all three stories). Rosario Dawson as the leader of the Old Town Girls. Jaime King, Alexis Bledel and especially silent but deadly Devon Aoki as three of said prostitutes. The olive-skinned, almond-eyed, lush-lipped, sensuous gift to straight men everywhere that is Jessica Alba. All stunners, and all, as Marv puts it, "worth killing for, worth dying for, worth going to hell for. Amen."
COVETOUSNESS: George Lucas only wishes he could manage actors as well as this - Rodriguez and Frank Miller make the technology serve the movie, not the other way around.
GREED: You may well want more of the stylized look of Basin City, the black-and-white with splashes of colour (the eyes always stay in colour), the dazzling ultra-violence... this truly is poetry in motion. Gruesome? You bet (Marv literally leaving a villain for the wolves, Miho slicing villains left and right, Hartigan getting shot several million times - not to mention what he does to TYB), but if you can take it, you'll want more, more, more.
SLOTH: Well, the stories may be pretty slim, especially the final one (a bit lazy in that respect), but in this world it's not what's told so much as the way it's told. And the way it's told is mind-blowing... "Sin City" may not be for everyone, but from the moment Rodriguez's sax music kicks in (he also did the score for the last story, with Graeme Revell mainly handling the first, and John Debney the second) it's a trip very, very worth taking. Sequel, please. (And bring back Jessica; after That Dress at the MTV Movie Awards...)