If there was a box of crime clichés, it would be called sin city...

Rating: 9/10 (10 September 2005)

50 years ago this film might have followed a trend set by hardened American cop characters created to feed the masses with the story of the criminal element. But today this movie is in a league of its own, its been half a century since we have seen a good, rugged, hard movie showing the dark and sleazy world of organised crime and its antagonists, the hard as nails cops, 2 days from retirement as per usual.
It has everything down to perfection, you cant go one minute without hearing a corny line from a cop, a mouthy threat from a crook, or a snappy comeback from a walking juggernaut, being insulted by small time hit men. Hartigan is everything a cop should be, he is retiring, 30 years on the force, wife, kids, partner of so many years, and so many criminals locked away to his name, and hes fishing for his last trout on the streets of basin city.
Marv is a classic rendition of the streetwise bare fist extraordinaire tank of a being, who strolls the streets, knowing he owns the place. The cops cant touch him and the crooks cant scratch him, and he knows the weakness of every situation he gets into....he also takes two shots of 50,000 volts to die successfully.
If there was a box that contained every single crime story cliché in history, it would be called sin city, and thats why its great.
We've heard it all before and seen it all before, but now we get to do both in style, with a star filled cinematic epic to bring film noir to the next generation.