Sin City Movie Review

By-in-large, it's been a shitty day. It was way too long, I'm running out of cash, and to top it off, Blogger is acting really strange (Correction : Blogger is fucking up big time. This is the sixth time I have tried to post this! I’m glad I save my blog entry to Word before I try to post…); but I did manage to take in a movie. That's actually a fairly rare occurrence, I probably see a movie about once every six months or so. So I figured that was notable enough that I would provide a movie review. So, here we go:

So, for some pure information: Sin City is directed by Robert Rodriguez (the director of Desperado, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, and ... Spy-Kids...) and was inspired by Frank Miller's graphic novel (i.e. really big comic book) of the same name. Miller was also on board as a co-director, as was Quentin Tarantino.

The cast includes Mickey Rourke as Marv, a "mildly" psychotic brute on a mission of vengeance; Bruce Willis as Hartigan, a old, straight as an arrow cop on one final mission to serve and protect; Jessica Alba as Nancy Calahan, a young woman whom Hartigan saved from a disgusting sexual predator as a child; and Clive Owen as Dwight, an enigmatic and somewhat unhinged hitman out to prove himself. The movie is divided into sub-stories that stand on their own, but also twist and intersect, and the whole thing moves in a big circle that arrives back where it started.

Now, a quick note, if for some reason you think a movie titled "Sin City" would be good for kids or your Grandma... It isn't. No really, it isn't. The characters lie, cheat, steal, murder, abuse drugs and alcohol, and break more laws in an hour than most people do in thier lifetimes. And that's just the good guys. For example, the bad guys include a power-mad senator, a corrupted clergyman, a twisted pedophile, and a vicious animalistic cannibal that looks disturbingly like a sadistic Harry Potter. Not to mention the sheer amount of violence and T&A... (Or, in the case of the Miho the Ninja Hooker... both violence AND T&A at the same time)

If massive amounts highly stylized violence and a whole lot of nudity doesn't throw you off (People from such systems of belief as the Quakers and Puritans need not apply... go watch the Sound of Music again, trust me), the movie simply kicks ass.

The visual imagery for the movie is excellent: stark grayness of black & white films mixed in with periodic splashes of vivid color: A lightning bolt here, a red dress there, a woman's blonde curls, a pool of blood... The whole thing is backed up by the monologues of hard-edged anti-heroes. The world is bleak, the bad guys are completely evil, the good guys are tainted by the scum around them. It is very much a movie of a harsh, modern, gritty graphic novel.

One of the my favorite features of this movie is that it combines massive amounts of violence with sudden slapstick humor, adding to an interesting "Tragedy/Comedy." (One guy gets shot with an arrow, and spends the rest of the scene going "Hey, I have an arrow in my chest. Do you think we should call a hospital?) The amount of one-liners in this movie is enough to fuel inside jokes for years to come. And to top it off, the storylines are quite solid and well written. It should be noted that a lot of it is intentionally over the top, to match the comic-book feel, but that doesn't detract from the movie.

In brief: If you're not put off by sex and violence, and love movies that match brutal with slapstick, and are gritty and over the top: Sin City is perfect.

Final Grade: I give this film a solid A.

Dude! I just did my first movie review! Of course, it was rambling a bit... but when do I not? :-D

Well, that's all I got, kids. And because Blogger was fucking up, it's a lot later than I want it to be. Thank God the weekend is almost here. So 'til next time, rock on.