Sin City - Ray's Review

Frank Miller's Sin City
2005
124 mins

Based on the graphic novels by Frank Miller
Shot and Cut by Robert Rodriguez
Directed by Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez
Special Guest Director - Quentin Tarantino

Starring:
Mickey Rourke - Marv
Bruce Willis - Hartigan
Clive Owen - Dwight
Benecio Del Toro - Jackie Boy
Jessica Alba - Nancy Callahan
Nick Stahl - Roark Jnr/Yellow Bastard
and many, many more!

Intro:

Up until now I felt Robert Rodriguez was an extremely overrated filmmaker. People seem to be fixated on his ability to shoot things fast and cheap. While he is a multi-talented and enthusiastic film maker I never felt this necessarily translated into very good films. Don't get me wrong, I think the guy is great and loved his book Rebel without a crew. I just think his films so far haven't delivered the goods.

El Mariachi (1992) was made on a tiny budget (he raised the money being a lab rat in Mexico!) and put Rodriguez on the Hollywood fast track. He has an impressive ability to stretch a tiny budget a long way, possibly helped by his extremely likable personality - hell, he talked the Mexican police into giving him their guns for use in El Mariachi!

In 1995 he made Desperado, essentially a big budget remake of El Mariachi. I recall being very excited by the advertising for this film. The posters and trailers made it look just too cool for school, but when I finally saw it I was disappointed. The first half hour or so was brilliant. The characters were strong and shoot-outs in the bar were very well staged, but then when the other Mariachis turned up to give Banderas a hand, the film fell apart. I don't believe Rodiguez possessed the skill to stage the larger scale actions scenes at that point in his career.

From Dusk till Dawn and The Faculty were OK, but still weren't as good as I thought Rodriguez was capable of. Don't even get me started on the Spy Kids franchise. I've watched all three and I just don't feel he captured the magic that good children's films have, not to mention they get more and more messy as he goes on. Spy Kids 3D was just plain awful, the 3D was painful to watch and the plot was utter crap. I understand I'm not the target audience in this case so I'll let it slip. However, he has no excuse for the absolute disaster of a film Once Upon a Time in Mexico (how dare he allude to Sergio Leone's classic films). I thought the action was a step back from what he did with Desperado and the plot was just a bloody mess. When it was over I turned to my friend in the theatre and we just went "huh?".

I always knew Rodriguez was a talented dude I just felt he never really knocked one out of the park... until now that is. Sin City is an absolute blast and is far and away the best thing he has ever done.

The Optimist:

Watching Sin City is a unique experience. It is like nothing else I have ever seen. That alone makes this a film worth seeing in these days of crap sequels, remakes of crap TV shows and crap American remakes of Japanese horror films.

The other thing that stood out to me the most, other than the incredible visual style was the level of sex and violence. It was so fricken awesome seeing a film with some damn balls for once! It reminded me of why I watch so many films from the 80's, when it was OK to show tits for no reason and to beat the living crap out of people for our amusement.

I felt refreshed and inspired after Sin City, something I haven't felt for quite some time. It also gave me that feeling that great action films give you - you walk out of the theatre feeling like you could just kick all kinds of arse, last time I felt like that was after the first Matrix.

As you know the film is based on a series of gritty graphic novels by Frank Miller. Rodriguez convinced Frank Miller to make these into films by showing him a small demo, proving that capturing the cartoon look is possible with todays technology. Frank was obviously happy with the demo and a partnership was formed (in fact Rodiguez had to leave the directors guild of America so that he could co-direct this film with Frank Miller). Sin City has been described by some as a "panel translation", as in they have literally translated each panel from the cartoon into a live action scene, retaining the same composition and design as the graphic novels. No other cartoon to film translation has ever been this accurate.

The film tells three different stories which overlap one another slightly. The first and best is the tale of Marv (Mickey Rourke). A massive hulk of a man who is framed for the murder of a beautiful hooker and who exacts his revenge in a series of incredibly violent encounters. Rourke - even under masses of make-up - manages to make Marv an incredibly likable guy, even when he's grinding someone's face on the road while driving. I found myself captivated by his commanding performance, helped no end by all the other great actors. Carla Gugino (Spy Kids) plays Marv's parole officer and all I can say is hot damn! Her nude scenes are something else, who knew this woman had such curves. I will never look at her in Spy Kids the same way ever again! I don't want to spoil anything but it's safe to say Elijah Woods ain't playing no cute little hobbit in this film, he is one sick mofo!

The second and weakest tale stars Clive Owen (from King Arthur), Benicio Del Toro and Rosario Dawson (Alexander). This is another story in the vein of a noir revenge and I found it too similar to the first tale (but I'll talk about that later). Basically he gets mixed up in a war between hookers, the Police and the mob. Needless to say things get very ugly fast. You will see a lot of gorgeous woman playing scantly clad hookers in this and believe me, it's the icing on the cake of something already so visually alluring.
The third story is about Bruce Willis's character Hartigan, an aging cop close to retirement who gets framed for the rape of a small child whom he tried to save from a sick pedophile killer. After eight years in prison he is released and you guessed it, excessive amounts of fantastically over-the-top violence ensues. Even more sexiness arrives in the form of the now grown up little girl played by Jessica Alba - how many babes can one film have?

This is a difficult film to discuss as I don't want to give away any of the great moments, but believe me this film is absolutely packed with memorable scenes and vivid characters - not to mention it's very funny in places too. You will be shocked, sickened, scared and excited all at once. Oh my, what a great feeling.

The Pessimist:

As I said above, the second chapter in this bloody opus failed to impress me as much as Marv's tale. For me, it didn't have enough to distinguish itself from the first story. As a result Clive Owen's character just seemed like a less exciting version of Marv. Britney Murphy has the uncanny ability to pull me out of the movie experience and remind me none of it is real - also I didn't think she was 'on the same page' as the other actors, effectively ruining the scenes she was in (which thankfully weren't too many).

As much as I love film violence, I did find myself becoming a little immune to it's effect by the end, but that's hardly a big problem. If you are the wimpy type you will definitely not appreciate the face mashing, dismemberment and penis ripping (yes, you heard me right). One's got to have a stomach for this level of depravity and it will certainly put off some people.

Sin City didn't really feel like a traditional film. It felt like three short films combined. As a result it's not quite as fulfilling as traditionally structured action films.

I'm searching for negatives here and coming up blank. For whatever failings this film has , they are so outweighed by the sheer amount of inspiration and love that's gone into it, that it's impossible not to come out impressed.

Conclusion:

If you miss the balls of 80's films (lots of nudity and violence) and are bored with generic Hollywood films, Sin City should feel like a breath of fresh air. It's inventive, daring and an absolute original (if you don't count it's noir influences). However, if you are easily offended this film is clearly going to upset you. It is full of unrelenting violence and makes absolutely no apologies for it. I say, good on them. Oh and if you liked it you have something to be happy about - they are currently working on the script for Sin City 2.

9/10

Previous reviews by Ray:

The Island

Land of the Dead

Batman Begins

War of the Worlds

Fantastic 4