*** Official SIN CITY Review Thread (1 Viewer)

[JamieD]

Really, really wanted to love this. But I didn't. I found several of the performances painful. I tend to attribute this to an unease within the technology combined with the intentionally over the top scripting (see Star Wars).

Murphy, Dawson, and most of the oldtown girls (with the exception of Devon Aoki) were painful to watch. I've never been a big fan of either Murphy or Dawson though, so I guess I shouldn't be suprised at that. It was more that the three stories felt too loose. He could have taken one and stretched it a bit to make a nice tight 1.5 hr movie, or three 1.25 hr movies or whatnot and pulled a Kill Bill. Intertwine a few actors, but sell it as unrelated stories.

With that said, very well shot, and several performances are great (Rourke, Wood, Owen, Alba, Gugino among others).

But the feel wasn't there. I'm still not 100% sure why.

The longer I've been out of the theater, the less I like the movie. To mee that's never a good thing.

 

[Jefferson Morris]

I haven't written an actual review of a movie on HTF in a very long time. The last time I was inspired to do so was for The Fellowship of the Ring, but I didn't bother because of the sheer volume of posts that rendered my thoughts redundant. Then along came Sin City.

I want this film on DVD yesterday. Four out of four, five out of five, whatever. It's Pulp Fiction-good, and if it doesn't end up being the film of the year, then 2005 will have turned out to be a remarkable year for movies indeed. Rodriguez hath made his masterpiece, at last - the kind of film that even supposedly cultured people have to use profanity to describe. Fuck, it's fucking great.

Finally, here's a movie shot mostly on bluescreens (greenscreens?) that doesn't feel like it was shot mostly on bluescreens (see the prequels, Sky Captain for examples). And the reason is not because the technology is necessarily more advanced. Sure, maybe black and white is more forgiving than color in this regard, but the real reason I didn't pay any attention to the technology on display here was because I was so bloody caught up in the stories. And that happens less and less often for me these days.

I won't spoil any of the story. I came in knowing nothing, never having read the comics, and I'm all the happier for it. Suffice to say that this film is like a series of guilty cinematic pleasures piled one on top of the other, coming at you so quickly and furiously and rendered with such gusto that eventually you stop feeling guilty and just begin to revel in it (A friend said after the screening that he felt like taking a bath, but he meant it as a compliment). Then the film turns around and hits you emotionally when you least expect it - Marv's tale and the resolution of the Hartigan/Nancy story did this for me.

I won't bother running down individual performances (except Mickey Rourke - terrific, to his last, hard-boiled moment). The actors put on their best gravelly voices, and the women are phenomenal (Carla Gugino - Good God!) I enjoyed this movie so much that I wasn't even all that disappointed that Jessica Alba didn't go topless (Though it must be said, if she had it might well have made this the best movie of all time.)

My friend told me that this film looked as if it was tailor-made to appeal directly to my sensibilities (I have yet to see a film that I actually thought was too violent). Yet I can see from the reviews above that this statement applies to many of us. This movie was made for us. Let's cherish it, and let's keep it ahead of Beauty Shop at the box office office. And let's get that tricked-out special edition DVD--yesterday.

--Jefferson Morris

 

[dan fritzen]

I liked this movie, still like the comics better but the movie was good. Definitely story driven.

My one gripe is that i would like to see these digital movies and not know it is a green screen, which you can tell in this movie and Sky Captain. I imagine over time directors will get better at using digital where we won't notice the small set everyone is on.

 

[Shawn_KE]

Loved it. Nice boobs, violence and gore. The Hard Goodbye ruled. And the Yellow Bastard was great. Didn't care much for the Big Fat Kill.

 

[Dome Vongvises]

I say about:

B+/A-

It left an impression on me no doubt. One of the most fun films I've seen in a theater.

 

[ChrisMatson]

I caught a matinée today and plan on seeing it again. I think I was too distracted by the style to focus on the characters and story at times.

I think Mickey Rourke had the strongest performance. Rosario Dawson didn't do much for me.

:star: :star: :star: /:star: :star: :star: :star:
for now...

 

[Seth Paxton]

Sin City
9 of 10

Comic book film noir. The best of film noir taken to the extremes of a comic book world. Tough guys in hard situations doing harsh things to low lifes who deserve it, all for the sake of beautiful women who might be more dangerous than any of them. The characters hit harder, take more brutal damage, jump farther, break ropes and chains and generally do everything past level 10, more like 14.

You take the animated world of Sky Captain, the character makeup of Dick Tracy, dialog straight out of The Big Sleep or Sunset Blvd, situations as interwoven and twisted as Pulp Fiction, and you top it off with a gore level a little bit higher than the Crazy 88 scene in Kill Bill.

The dialog is cool and affected in its delivery. This is not reality, it’s grittiness made beautiful and slick, violence made glorious, ugly, cold men made into heroes, whores into angels. Yet the film keeps this style to a purpose, it never feels exploitative or cheap.

It’s possible that a person might find the gore to be too much, though much of the time the blood is white splotches of paint in a B&W world. Another complaint might be the stilted delivery of the dialog at times, but that too is balanced by the extreme coolness of what is being said and when someone is saying it. The film has great lines to spare, as well as great characters.

It’s days later and I can’t wait to see it again. It’s that interesting and good.


PS - I also left thinking that Rourke really kicked butt, though I enjoyed Clive Owen a lot too. Mickey will make an impression on many people I think, great effort.

PSS - never read the graphic novels


edit - dropped back to a 9 after a 2nd viewing

 

[ErnieGplus]

I loved this movie im glad it wasent another kill bill. I hated kill bill. I give sin city a B-

 

[Edwin Pereyra]

Sin City

This one didn’t do much for me. While it is visually arresting and has a lot of style, it is too serious for its own good in a backdrop and environment that is so over the top. It’s just too bad that most of the energy was focused on style. Only one story really stood out to compel the psyche and it quickly runs out of steam after the Mickey Rourke episode.

The other two episodes that follow, more or less, serve as a vehicle for the more important eye candy. Anyone who says otherwise is in serious denial.

~Edwin

 

[Rhett_Y]

Both me and the wife liked this one...... Loved the way the movie was shot and feel of it... Thought I was watching a comic book (without the bamm pzzzzz booom writing all over it..)

R~

 

[Max Leung]

I liked it a lot.