Show me a flaw!

Rating: 10/10 (21 November 2005)

If Frank Miller or Robert Rodriguez don't get Oscar hype for this film, then the world is not itself. This is quite possibly the best ensemble piece in the history of cinema (ranking with Ocean's eleven, or even Lord of the Rings. This is what it means to be faithful to your source material. The Sin City books (which I have now read and cherish) are unlike any comics today, and they make for a perfect movie with Film Noir motifs, but enough about the books. Frank Miller did the right thing by getting this movie made, some of his previous dark books (i.e.: Batman: The Dark Knight Series) have been made into successful forms of media, but this film dominates over all. The story of the film is divided into a few chapters actually (being 3 large stories and small opening and closing one) with three (and a small fourth) leads. The first major story is about a stone cold (in many ways) killer named Marv (played perfectly by the only living actor who could have possible have played Marv; Mickey Rourke) who sets out on a quest for vengeance for a hooker with a heart of gold that gave him the night of his life and runs into another killer of a different sort (played by Elijah Wood who is a far cry by the 3-foot tall Hobbit) and a cannibalistic cardinal (Rutger Hauer), this segment is the most violent, yet the best story of the film. The next involves a killer named Dwight (Clive Owen) who gets tangled up in a plot to bring down a band of hookers (led by the exotic Rosario Dawson) and manages to take down a bully cop (played by an unrecognizable in appearance and voice Benicio Del Toro) and a giant of a crime lord (Clarke Michael Duncan). The final story, which starts before the Marv story and resumes after the Dwight story is probably the best-acted and written one. It has a heroic cop named Hartigan (Bruce Willis) and his last day on the job, he rescues a 11-year old girl from the clutches of an untouchable child rapist (Nick Stahl, who goes from the savior of humanity in Terminator 3 to one of the nastiest villains on screen). Hartigan saves the girl, shoots the rapist and ends up being framed for the girl's kidnapping, rape and murder of the guilty rapist and spends 8 years in prison. Hartigan then believes that the girl is still in danger and manages to get released and finds the girl has grown up to be the not so innocent Jessica Alba, an exotic dancer who is now in love with Hartigan. They are then chased down by the surviving rapist who is now a mutant psychotic. This film goes above and beyond in every aspect, especially in the narration. The whole film is shot in front of a green screen so it's loaded with CG sets and environments, but you can't always tell (that's a good thing). If you held the book up next to the screen for most of the scenes you'd find an uncanny likeness that no other film has done as well. The babes are hot, the guys are cool and the writing is for lack of a better word, perfect. This film is the best film of 2005 and certainly the best comic book movie and should be going head to head with Crash at the Oscars this year. Mickey Rourke is the actor they should be handing Best Supporting Actor to. Not for kids, the film is overly (but joyfully) violent and has scenes of sex and nudity but don't let that big (well earned) R stop you from worshipping this film. Only one small problem, doesn't effect the film itself, but the DVD has no special features.