Better than expected!

Rating: 9/10 (11 April 2005)

Saw this flick Saturday and I was not expecting that much but I was pleasantly surprised. Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller did an outstanding job of transferring the comic to the screen.
Some have said, what's the point of that? Why go to such painstaking lengths to faithfully recreate the comic? Well, for those of us who either never read the comic or, like me, have just flipped though it, its just amazing to watch the movement and basically see it come to life.
I happened to see it on a new DLP screen and it was gorgeous to watch. I was struck by how violent it was for an R rated movie. I'm talking about severed limbs and private parts being torn off. But I guess comic book violence doesn't count as far as the MPAA is concerned.
The film takes a few different stories from the Sin City books but they all have common threads. Some of the characters are very creepy (Elijah Woods character) Some are humorous (I enjoyed Mickey Rourke's Marv character and story).
Everyone was good but some of the dialog, that probably seemed OK in the graphic novel, came off sounding sort of ridiculous. But this is not a real city so I wasn't that concerned with the 50's detective novel type dialog and the fact that some people are driving Ferarrari's while Cadillacs and cop cars are from the 50's. Or that a female assassin has blood splatter on her face and five seconds later her face has no blood stains.
As for Jessica Alba as Nancy...OOFA! Outstanding in her leather chaps and later looking yummy in a nightie and cowboy boots as she's being whipped by the Yellow Bastard. Her acting was terrible but I didn't care one bit.
By the way, if you have a fetish for women holding and shooting guns, this flick is for you. Tons of it. There is one shot of Rosario Dawson blasting away with a machine gun with a fetishistic smile on her face that is worth the price of admission alone.
Can't wait to get the extended director's cut with all the other scenes they shot included.