To paraphrase what President Woodrow Wilson called World War I, This is the "NOIR TO END ALL NOIRS", ain't it, Schultz?

Rating: 8/10 (26 February 2009)

BEING part of the Post War Baby Boom, having been born into a Blue Collar Working Class family; it was only natural that Comic Books would be a staple on the monthly reading & entertainment menus. Starting at some date in 1952, we started getting TREASURE CHEST at St. Theodore Elementary School. Designed for Catholic School kids and it carried stories of Saints, Historical Incidents and a Serialized Adventure Strip about a real cool,kind of a coach & mentor. The title was 'Chuck White' and it kept us coming back for more month after month, at least during the seemingly never-ending school year.
OLDER Sister, Joanne Ryan (1942-90) was a 5th Grader at this time; she from time to time brought home a copy of ARCHIE Comics or some such similar publication. We preferred the likes of DENNIS THE MENACE, LITTLE LULU, BUGS BUNNY and just about anything that was had a WALT Disney theme.
THEN it happened. After the passing of several years, at about 10 ½ years, the then declining Super Hero/Costumed Crime Fighter genre struck us. It was the Summer of 1957; the same year that the Ruskies launched their Sputnik, Joanne's younger brother (me!) tried out for the Little League and Gramma Fuerst (our Mother's Mother) died at 77 years of age; as did our Uncle Ed Ryan (Dad's younger brother) at 39.
ADDITIONALLY to these milestones, another occurrence collided with my young and relatively uneventful life in the house on South Damen Avenue. Although it is an admittedly happening of much lesser importance, it nonetheless seemed to mark me for life. Our gang discovered guys like SUPERMAN, BATMAN, THE FLY, THE JAGUAR and THE PHANTOM in the Comic Books that were always available at Cal & Eleanor's Damen Drug Store;which was right there at the corner of 65th & Damen Avenue. Of all those available characters, there was one who absolutely captured my imagination. Guess who he was? GIVE UP, do you? Okay Schultz, it was BATMAN.
AFTER reading and really getting into these stories, this writer literally wanted to be Batman; so much so as the super hero was the theme of our costumes that Halloween, with yours truly donning the blue serrated edged cape, bat-eared cowl, gray pajamas and blue boots, trunks & gloves of the Batman. Mind you that this was nearly a decade before the great Camp Batman Craze on ABC TV.
IN THE ensuing years ever since there have been heap lot of changes and developments in the Comics Magazine Publishing field. There came specialty shops that sold only comic books and related materials. These Comic Shops handled a plethora of titles; a seemingly galactic number of titles. They also had certain age ranges targeted, with traditional kiddy publications and running up to some strictly '"Adults Only" stuff. These so called 'more sophisticated' stuff gave rise to a new sub-species, the Graphic Novel.
TODAY'S reviewed movie, SIN CITY (Troubleshooter Studios/Dimension Films. 2005) is the adaptation of one of these 'growed up Joke Books.
BEING the brain-child of Comics writer & artist, Frank Miller, the adaptation and (shared) directorial duties fell to the stories creator. This means that it have received a fairly close of a rendering as its screen play and characterizations. At this we can only guess or surmise about its veracity by what we hear from others; as we are not at all familiar with the Graphic Novels about (Ba)Sin City.
IN having screened it at the LaGrange (Illinois) Theatre's $2.00 special showings, we do feel competent in giving testimony of our opinion in that film's behalf. As far as a its being a truly different sort of movie from a technical point of view; it sure fits the bill there. Other than SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF Tomorrow (consortium of companies/Paramount, 2004) and Mr. Frank Miller's recent adaptation of Will Eisner's THE SPIRIT (Continental/Odd Lot/Lionsgate, 2008) we can't think of any example of this technique of marry animation art with live action.
THIS use of the widely disparate processes makes for some truly spectacular scenes and creates a whole array of other possibilities for future projects. Certainly genres of film as widely diverse as Science Fiction, Historical, Biblical, Super Hero or whatever would benefit from the spectacular scenery and "sets" that could be made.
AS FOR our rundown and lowdown on SIN CITY, we have to give a heavy hearted report of a mixed review. Whereas the images and characters were both fascinating & very interesting, and the action sequences were neatly done and not really overdone, which could have been a real temptation to do; the action, the plot lines and the surroundings left us sort of in a negative state of being.
COMPLICATING matters even more was that accompanying this writer to the Movie Show on that evening was Mrs. Ryan (Deanna), who had even less familiarity with the subject matter than did meself (with all of my experience in comics). Well what can we say; except something that reasonably approaches the truth, and nothing but.
IN CONCLUSION, Ladies & Gentlemen of the Jury, we can enjoy and appreciate pretty much any story, however off-beat, in whatever medium from strict prose, graphic sequential art, spoken word or as a play-be it legitimate theatre or filmed. However, we don't have the ability to get into the spirit of the language & interaction between characters in the story. "With a body like that, she could get any guy she wanted; if she wasn't a lesbian" exclaims 'Bob' (Michael Madsen).
BETWEEN passages like that and action such as having one guy beating his opponent in one of those filthy, scummy gas station-like bathrooms and pushing the opponents head into the dirty toilet bowl, replete with whirling fecal matter as it was flushed; well, you get what we're driving at, no?