Brilliant Visuals squandered on Bloodletting.

Rating: 4/10 (18 July 2005)

Sin City makes Cinema Noir look positively white. The four stars awarded are for the excellent visual treatment, very original and stylish, that would make even Orson Welles applaud, bringing a comic strip (albeit a R rated one) to life on the screen at last. Not since Tim Burton's Gotham City, has there been such a menacing metropolis. The black and white images highlighting some elements in colour are truly imaginative and in themselves work extremely well. However the script is mainly sadistic nonsense, and it seems a pity that such clever photography is squandered on a plethora of sex, violence, torture, and gruesome killings. Bruce Willis, Clive Owen and the return of Mickey O'Rouke (looking like a mini version of the Hulk) set out to revenge themselves on very unpleasant characters, but in an avalanche of bloodletting ghoulish torture and killings, suggesting that murder is some sort of competitive sport - violence for violence sake. These especially grisly murders, the torture and exploitation of women, is not everyone's idea of entertainment. Including the Nosferatu lookalike dispatched in a burst of maniacal violence by Willis. It may be faithful to the source material, which fortunately I haven't read, but in a world threatened by terrorists every day, wherein people may be blown up by lunatic bombers this blood and guts ode to violent death and torture is not especially appropriate.