Great style, needs writing

Rating: Null/10 (9 April 2005)

"Sin City" has great style, and the literal translation of graphic-novel to film is great. I'm fascinated with the blurring of the lines between comic/cartoon/live action/computer game, and visually this one makes it. The fault here is with the writing: too much sophomoric and wildly implausible dumbness. Quentin Tarantino avoids this in his own films: he makes his almost-cartoon characters work because he knows how to combine the surreal with the utterly commonplace. He does that with the story and he does it with the characters. Also, he knows when to be ironic, and when to play it straight. I saw little of this in "Sin City", despite Tarantino's involvement with it. The one good line in the movie has to be Tarantino, though, where Clive Owen describes what Devon Aoki does to Benicio del Toro. (You'll see why.) Some good performances: Benicio del Toro all the way over the top; Nick Stahl as a castrated proto-Ferengi child molester; Mickey Roarke (for real!) in way too much makeup but playing an Arnold Schwarzenegger character in the idiom of Mike Hammer - irrationally, it works. Powers Boothe and Rutger Hauer stole every scene they were in - wow. Lots of stunning but eminently forgettable women with seriously chapped butt-cracks. (You'll see why.) Bruce Willis was good, but his character is so implausible, even for a live-action cartoon character, that it doesn't work. Elijah Wood as Kevin and Devon Aoki as Miho needed to hook up--Miller et al missed an opportunity there. (You'll see why.)