NOTE - This film has been out on dvd for a couple of years.  The review was composed just after its release, and this is the final posting that'll be carried over from my old blog.  Honest!  Only fresh, current up-to-date nonsense henceforth.





Riveting, absolutely riveting. If you rent this DVD and watch it, be sure to shutter the windows first, in the event that any underage persons might pass by and peek in - it doesn't matter what scene. Also keep the remote handy, because if you have to get up to pee you'll want to pause it and even wind it back a little when you return to make sure you didn't miss anything. Several stories intertwine nicely and even though there are a handful of protagonists, every one of them is the star when it's his turn to be featured. We start with Bruce Willis, who hands it off to Mickey Rourke, who in turn hands it off to Clive Owen, and then there's the cameo appearances from Josh Hartnett, who appears in the opening scene and, uh.. elsewhere.

Powerfully antagonistic and viciously villainous performances are given by Powers Boothe, Rutger Hauer, Benicio Del Toro, Michael Clarke Duncan, Nick Stahl and (gasp) Elijah Wood. A number of leading ladies round out the bill, most notably the sexy dark angel herself, Jessica Alba, but also Carla Gugino, Rosario Dawson, Jaime King, Brittany Murphy and fresh from the wholesomeness of The WB's "Gilmore Girls", Alexis Bledel, who turns in a great performance. Her character seems to be the most innocently naive of the hardcore hookers of Sin City, so Alexis is a logical choice, with her bright blue eyes, rosy cheeks and "golly, who me?" face.

Usually I'm a little wary of films with such a star-studded cast, thinking that the story must be so awful that they hired all of these Hollywood heavyweights to make up for it. No doubt they're just going to crash cars and blow things up to keep you awake - but the story (rather, stories) in Sin City failed to disappoint me. On the contrary, if it were a book I wouldn't be able to put it down (this is the point where my wife reminds me that it IS a book, or actually, a graphic novel). As it was I had a difficult time pausing the DVD for that bathroom break and coffee refill. It ain't Shakespeare folks, but it's going to grab you by the balls and not let go. If you don't have balls you might be okay, but as for me, I finished it two hours ago and I'm still walking funny.

Not only is this film a writer's dream (as in, "Darn, I wished I'D written that instead of this Frank Miller guy"), but it's also a special effects paradise. Partly in black and white in the good old film noir tradition and partly in color, it can't quite seem to figure out what it is, but it's brilliantly cohesive. You won't even mind that there's no set period - the cars, sets and wardrobe are all (mostly) right out of "The Maltese Falcon", but at one point Clive Owen's character uses a cell phone and it doesn't matter. It's as if you're in a fantasy world anyway, where you expect Roger Rabbit to pop up any second and assist Bruce Willis in saving the girl, who could have turned out to be Jessica Rabbit and I wouldn't have blinked. There aren't any cartoon characters, but some of the human characters come close - Mickey Rourke's hideously homely "Marv" and Nick Stahl's "Yellow Bastard" are big screen cartoon characters come to life, no doubt with six or more hours spent in the makeup chair for both of these guys every day of the shoot.

Speaking of "shoot", there's a lot of shooting in Sin City (groan) - and stabbing and maiming and blowing up of things and people. Limbs fly, bodies get punctured and blown up, and a lot of people die. Mostly the bad guys (yay!) but occasionally the good guys too (aww!) and it's all very graphic and violent, with the blood flowing freely in varying shades of black, white and red. Sometimes the blood is in color and sometimes not, it just depends on the scene.

A while back I rented some horrific little piece of fluff about an alien creature loose in the woods who terrorizes some teenage campers, and of course it just had to rip heads off and chew up its victims in a very bloody and disgusting manner. I couldn't finish it because the violence was there to shock you and hopefully keep you from noticing that there wasn't a story to be had, but in Sin City the violence serves the story, which wouldn't be anything without it. I watched the whole thing and I seriously doubt that tomorrow I'm going to go out and rip the wings off of butterflies, but if you're of a delicate constitution and this much violence is going to disturb you no matter how good the story is, then you should probably pass this one up and see if there's a Gilmore Girls rerun on tv tonight.

Obviously, parents will want to wait until their kids are at least, oh, twenty one or so before they show them this movie. Be warned, DON'T let your young ones see this, unless you like explaining things a lot and responding to nightmare screams at two in the morning. Teens could certainly handle it, but I'd sooner shoot myself in the foot than let an eight-year-old see it.

As awesome as our living room wide screen TV is, with it's kick butt Harmon Kardon sound system, Sin City is one film I regret having missed in the theater. But as luck would have it there are a couple of sequels on the way, so if I start saving now maybe I'll have enough for my wife and I to buy tickets and concessions for a night out at the movies by the time the next one is released.

This movie runs two hours, but I don't know where the time went - it ended too soon, but it ended nicely. I admire nobility in any form, and that's all I'll say about that.