The good, the bad & the ugly.

Rating: 5/10 (7 November 2005)

It's amazing how quickly films are moving off the big screen and onto DVDs. Sin City, of course, is no exception.
Anyone who watches this film should be forewarned that it contains countless scenes of extremely graphic violence, brief nudity, and moderate sexual dialogue.
Sin City is a true work of art. Frank Miller, Robert Rodriguez and Q. Tarantino all did a fantastic job giving this film direction. The cinematography, misc-en-scene and sound are all noteworthy. Assembling a fantastic ensemble cast of actors makes this film really enjoyable (most notably Brittany Murphy, Bruce Willis, Jessica Alba, Clive, the guy who played Marv, Rosario, Goldie, Elijah Wood, Nick Stahl, the Gilmore girl, etc.).
Unfortunately, Sin City really doesn't quite fit in on the big screen. It's a film Noir, without a doubt. Eye candy? Absolutely. Suited for the big screen? Eh, maybe not. There are several elements of this type of script that make this film better suited to being a video game.
For starters, the graphic violence is childish, gruesome, extremely graphic and all a bit senseless. Tasteless, if you will. The vocal narration, though superb and cleverly written, is best suited to the pages of a comic book or even a one player video game (like Max Payne). The camera angles and CGI used in the film belong in a PC game.
The presentation of the movie is not like any other comic book adaptation. Every shot is presented as it is in drawn in the comic book. I suppose this is okay because it's different and this is based on a graphic novel, but I couldn't help thinking how fantastic this would be if it was as a PC video game. With that said, it's fair to say that the script, itself, is not traditional Hollywood narrative.
Essentially, the movie contains three stories that don't quite interject with each other as properly as they could have or should have. You have the first story of police officer Hartigan (Willis) on the last day of the job, out on a last mission to rescue a small child eleven year old Nancy (Alba) from the clutches of a child molester (Stahl) who happens to be the son of a powerful, yet corrupt senator. Willis manages to save the girl, but is betrayed by his parter, and injured with gunshot wounds. Before we can ask what happens to him, we are thrust eight years into the future and come across Marv (some kind of medicated freak).
This is the beginning of the second story about a freak medicated patient (Marv) who falls in love with a whore named Goldie. As they lay in bed, Goldie is murdered and Marv swears revenge. Marv goes on a bloodthirsty hunt to find the killer of his lover Goldie. Marv travels through a series of people, most of all who he kills. Eventually his journey leads him to two blood thirsty cannibals who spare the heads of their victims and eat the bodies. Bleech! What happens then? You'll have to rent the movie to find out.
The last story is about a sweet girl (Shellie) who's boyfriend unleashes psychotic fury on his girlfriend's ex boyfriends/attackers. Again, more senseless, graphic violence that doesn't really do anything except make the audience realize how brutal humans can be to one another.
Out of all three stories, I really enjoyed the Willis/Alba story. It was bittersweet and more of a love Noir that had tremendous amount of potential. Frank Miller could have spared us the violence of the second and third stories and, instead, further developed this one. Using his techniques of black & white, the elaboration of this story would have made for an even more remarkable and incredible film.
So because of the diligent work of crew and cast (especially Brittany Murphy, Bruce Willis and Jessica Alba's fantastic performances), I give the film 5/10 stars.