Teen boy heaven, urbane sophisticate hell

Rating: 4/10 (4 May 2005)

Sin City is a highly stylised, brutally violent and deeply puerile string of clichés that will appeal to gore-loving teenagers and older men who are still in touch with their inner pubescent.
Its fans will say that the pictures count for a thousand words, and they are right. It does look fabulous, but the relentless corniness of the hard-boiled script often grates because it rarely crosses over from cringeworthiness into parody. It is Da-Vinci-Code bad. Teen-fan-fiction bad. It is studiously below the standard of mediocre but rarely so bad that it is funny. If you have ever played the computer game Max Payne, another graphic-novel inspired romp, you will know the standard.
The plot is divided into three episodes that are mixed up chronologically but have little in common other than some locations (a bar and a red light district) and themes (an abundance of prostitutes). All are pretty simple, and two are very straightforward revenge sagas. Vengeance obviously requires a certain degree of violence, but the extremes used here are less righteous justice than a gimmick to make teenagers say: "Whoah, did you see him rip that guy's dick off?" I thought I was quite tolerant of film violence - at least until I saw Kill Bill vol 1 - but when one character caves a villain's head in with his fists I just felt alienated.
In one sense this is a very satisfying film. It fits its stereotype perfectly. If you like hard-boiled graphic novels and extreme violence you will love it. If you like plots and characterisation, just walk away.