More hard boiled than a 90 minute egg!

Rating: Null/10 (2 April 2005)

Frank Miller's Sin City series of graphic novels are stark tales of hard boiled men, tough dames, nasty villains, corrupt cops, and steely-eyed killers. It was inspired by the works of Jim Thompson, James M. Cain, Mickey Spillane, Dashiell Hammett, and Raymond Chandler; film noir, and the works of Bernard Kriegsten. They are told in black and white, with occasional splashes of color, in an almost impressionistic style. Miller made a name for himself working on costumed heroes, like Daredevil and Batman, instilling them with his love of crime fiction. When he created his own stories, he left the costumes behind and went full-tilt noir.
Sin City, the movie, perfectly captures the look and tone of Miller's stories, with identical staging and the use of stark contrast in lighting. There are flashes of color, which have greater impact after the noirish scenery. The violence is over the top, in keeping with the comic origins. The characters look the part and the world exists in its own time and place.
The dialogue is pure Miller and sounds like it could have been spoken by Bogart or Cagney. That does present a slight problem, after years of more realistic dialogue in crime dramas. However, the actors deliver it with conviction, although it is a bit shaky in the opening scenes. It gets better as the film progresses. Much of it is delivered as monologue voice-over, in keeping with the traditions.
Mickey Rourke and Bruce Willis are the stand-outs, both able to convincing deliver the dialogue and carry the character. They dominate their scenes, although they have the best material to work from. Clive Owen and Benicio Del Toro are good, but their segment is a bit weaker. The various actresses perform their parts well, but the women of Sin City are a bit lacking in depth. There are no Barbara Stanwycks here.
Robert Rodriguez has captured the look and feel of the source well. The use of digital imagery captures the noir look, without the need for complex sets and lighting. However, it does tend to give everything an artificial aura. Real noir presented a harsh, fantastic world, but it always had substance. Despite advances in technology, the human eye still detects the artifice of CGI.
Overall, the film is quite entertaining, although extremely violent. This is not a date movie (unless your idea of romance is Natural Born Killers). It is modern noir, with the cynicism, corruption, depravity and vice. It's also a hell of a ride! The film is being compared to Pulp Fiction, but they are two different entities. Tarrantino's was a slicked-up homage to pulp storytelling; this is pure pulp. So, grab your favorite coat, a pack of smokes, a blue-steeled automatic, and enter the chiaroscuro world of Sin City.