Sin City

October 29, 2005

Rated: R Runtime: 126 min Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Sin City is the best movie I’ve seen since The Matrix. It has an original look and feel, the story is interesting, and the action/violence scale is almost off the charts. In short, I loved loved LOVED this movie.

Sin City is a collection of three separate, yet intertwined stories like what you saw in Pulp Fiction. In fact Quentin Tarantino is listed as a co-director of Sin City and it certainly has his fingerprints on it. The dialogue is pure Frank Miller, but the pacing and emphasis feels like Quentin.

The thing that sets Sin City apart from everything else though is it’s visual punch. The movie is based on a series of graphic novels from Frank Miller, and the adaptation from that form to the big screen is nearly perfect. They didn’t tone it down from the source material either, this is one violent movie. I was actually surprised at how far some of the scenes went and I’m sure the ratings board must have considered an NC-17 rating for this one. But, in the more gruesome scenes the story is told in silhouette… just like the source material, which is why it managed to get the R rating. Seriously though, this is very violent, so don’t take a squeamish date and expect her to be all cuddly afterwards.

The weakest part of Sin City would have to be the story itself. It’s good, but it’s not great, and the transitions between the different parts of the movie can be a bit jolting if you aren’t paying attention. The dialogue is cheesy, but it’s supposed to be cheesy so I can’t knock that. Actually it all works for me except the storyline with Clive Owen. The eye candy in this segment is great, but otherwise it just feels disjointed. Of course, it could be the fact that in the theater I was in the movie actually broke during this part of the film, and we had about a 10 minute break while they first noticed the problem, then fixed it. So take my reservations with a grain of salt.

You’ll recognize almost everyone in this movie, and while the biggest names certainly would be Bruce Willis and Jessica Alba, they don’t overshadow everyone else (except for Jessica’s belly… wow.) Everyone involved in this project brought their A-game to the set and it shows.

I’ve gushed enough about Sin City, just go see it. Just remember that’s it’s very violent so keep the kids and weak stomached females away.

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Posted by John | Filed Under 5 Stars, Action, Brittany Murphy, Bruce Willis, Clive Owen, DVD, Jessica Alba, Mickey Rourke, R