Sin City DVD > Reviews > It's So Good It's Positively Sinful

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Loved it
Story	Good
Characters / Performances	Outstanding
Special Effects	Outstanding
Soundtrack	Average

Advantages:	Bloody, Visual Flair, Good Acting
Disadvantages:	Can Become Tiresome, Inconsistent Pace

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Taken from the successful comic books penned by Frank Miller (Elektra) this tells three gritty stories about lost souls, love, grief and pain in the city of the damned…

Sin City grips you like a vice from the understated, beautiful opening to the shocking finale, throughout it remain constantly imaginative and engagingly gripping with expert flourishes of style mixed with breathtaking visuals and solid performances from its all star cast. Each story that is folded into this piece is unique, brutal and violent with a strong narrative and driving focus. It is true that two of the tales are far more enjoyable and engrossing than the other and the pace occasionally stutters, but Sin City's flaws are all but unnoticeable, rendered insignificant by the sheer intelligence and grit that is injected into this comic book adaptation. Although the film is displayed to us largely in black and white, the characters than inhabit this place of dread have all got genuinely interesting back stories and are all firmly in the grey, neither black nor white, angels or devils. This adds interest into their stories as we see them fighting against their consensus and humanity driven by pain, grief and desperation they become instantly identifiable yet unnervingly shocking and glue the whole concept together. This is brutal film making at its best, it contains violence but doesn't rely on it to drive the story forward, it isn't even really there to shock but more to make the film feel more realistic. Sin City is of epic proportions, the visuals are grand and truly original and the plot is given a strange sense of importance by sticking so true to its source material, there is something distinctly pleasing about watching something that is true and almost untouched. It was a big risk, a comic book movie with a hard core eighteen certificate, that alienates a large portion of the viewing public, but it works and when Sin City is good -which is most of the time- it is positively sinful.

Sin City is one of the most ambitious visual treats of all time; it is shown to us mainly in black and white that adds a unique, tense atmosphere which gets firmly under your skin and keeps you glued to the screen. The occasional slashes of intense, pure color -the evil green of someone's eyes, a sparkling red dress- are striking and almost hypnotizing beautiful. Cold menacing rain falls constantly on the twisted, cruel city of Sin and proves to be a haunting, exiting element that is -for such a little thing- brilliant, it serves as a trigger immediately, set you up for the carnage and mayhem that is always around the corner. The special effects are largely successful, most are convincing and effortlessly cool, but probably inevitably there are a few exceptions. Sometimes -well more often than not- the recreated cars are just a little too surreal for my liking, effortlessly bouncing through the streets, weightlessly flying through the air, hitting someone without any heavy sense of realism. The breath taking skylines are like nothing you will have seen before and all the sets are suitably grimy and intense. Costumes are as you would expect, the men are all bad asses so naturally wear long leather coats that flap in the wind as they walk stating their presence and the women were all but nothing, fish net tights, tight leather corsets and all sorts of other things that cover little and reveal lots. There is buckets of heavily stylized violence, white blood, yellow genitals and strangely maimed victims are littered throughout each scene and there are more bullet wounds on display here than any other film in recent times. Sin City is beautiful, striking and oddly haunting to look at, everything looks like it came straight out of a comic book and has huge amount of attention to detail.

====The Hard Goodbye==========

Marv goes on a bloody, vengeful rampage through Sin City, fueled by pain, grief and rage. Goldie was the 'perfect' woman, she had shown him the greatest night of his life. As he wakes up though, ready to kiss his new love into a brand new morning he discovers that she is stone cold, lifeless but still perfect. Marv is propelled into a well of despair and vows to his dead girlfriend that he will find her killer and make them pay. This is an adrenaline fueled violent chapter to the film with touches of tension. Sadly it is the most disappointing of the three tales of death and pain in the inner city, as a viewer I couldn't really see why the lead character had put so much at steak for a prostitute he had met the night of her death and he never questioned why she had been killed or who was trying to frame him for her murder. The narrative dragged on more than one occasion and the running time was too long. The section is probably the most violent of them all but it failed to shock me as I never understood the point of it and I quickly became bored. All of the performances are top notch though; Mickey Rourke is absolutely perfect as Marv. His portrayal of the border line mad man is fiery, intense and very interesting, not once do you question the believability of his performance and psychically he was perfectly suited to the demanding role. Jaime King is given a slightly confusing character to play, she starts the segment as Goldie -Marv's love- but when she gets bumped off, King comes up as her twin sister Wendy, here she isn't given a very fleshed out character to play with, so her performance isn't stunning it's very believable though. Elijah Wood is terrifying as the silent assassin responsible for Goldie's death, his strong glare and haunting muteness gets under the skin and stays with you for long after the end of the movie. There is a difference between reading a piece of dialogue in your head and hearing actors speak it, sometimes the language can feel unintelligent and rough, sadly I think the Hard Good Bye falls victim to this and the screenplay doesn't feel as enchanting or zingy as the others.
*****************************====The Big Fat Kill==========

Jackie Boy, is a bad ass, he beats his girlfriend around, abuses his power as a police man and consumes more alcohol than anyone else in town. Unfortunately for him, Shellie -Jackie Boys girlfriend and the waitress at the local strip joint- has got a new beau who isn't impressed by his abusive behavior. Whilst with his gang Jackie Boy stumbles into Old Town and starts to harass a young prostitute. In Old Town the girls have rules and an agreement with the police, they are allowed to look after their own turf using any means necessary, without raising public awareness, as long as they don't kill a cop that is….. The Big Fat Kill is a much more enjoyable chapter in the Sin City saga; it is interesting, intense and brilliantly made, helped by a very strong cast. This tale is taken into many avenues and has a really sharp intelligent screenplay to fall back on; there are also more characters on display here to keep the audience engrossed all the way through. The aspect of there being a law in The Old Town is unique and unexpected, there are many colorful 'ladies of the night' that deliver lots of action and the pace is very even. Clive Owen puts in perhaps the greatest performance of this whole production, he shows all the colours of his role and is completely believable as Dwight, there is a flicker of madness in every move that he makes. Threatening and likeable, dangerous and safe this is a great leading performance. Rosario Dawson plays Gail the leading prostitute of Old Town well, lots of sass is on display and her presence adds a frenetic sexiness to each of her scenes, her character is strong, independent and intriguing and Dawson gives her real depth. Jackie Boy is scary, strong, haunting and grimly intelligent and Benicio Del Toro literally makes you squirm, you just look at his despicable character and truly believe in him, you believe in his capacity for evil and he takes on an almost animal form as his character progresses and becomes more and more threatening. Brittany Murphy makes a small appearance as Shellie, and tries her best. Adding a lot of energy, but the lazy character plotting and unimportance of her role doesn't allow her to put in anything particularly astounding. This is a great little story that -unlike the previous story- has a lot of bite and an infectious energy, the pacing is excellent and visual style is amazing.
*****************************====That Yellow Bastard==========

Nancy is a wide eyed innocent, a young girl taken hostage by Sin City's most notorious child molester/killer. This despicable human being is Roark Jr. the senators son who can do whatever he wants to whoever he wants without so much as a second glance. Hartigan is a righteous cop and the only person willing to stand up against Roark and acknowledge his horrendous crimes, on a cold rainy night he goes after him in a desperate attempt to save poor Nancy's life. Hartigan succeeds in his goal, but is left for dead after shooting his enemy and a college turns on him. As he comes back from a coma in hospital Hartigan is arrested for attempted murder of a child, it's a last ditch attempt at clearing the president and son's names. Hartigan gets letters from Nancy every single week in his small cage of a home, until one day he gets a young girls finger enclosed in an envelope. Desperate to save his young friends life Hartigan admits that he tried to kidnap and kill her and is released, it isn't until he meets a now nineteen year old lap dancer that he realizes that he has lead the assassins straight to her….. This was by far my favorite piece of the Sin City saga, it has the most coherent, fluid story of the lot and keeps you gripped from beginning to end. I thought that this piece demanded more from its viewer; I had to watch and form my judgments. Nothing is ever just black and white in this film but every twist and turn that is thrown at you is shocking and intelligent. Bruce Willis shows why he is such a big star, as Hartigan he is electric and gruff. There is a great sense of ferocity that adds lots of edge to his scenes and proves to be a most capable leading man. Jessica once again proves that she is more than just an -astonishingly- pretty face, this is a confident mature performance with a great balance of sex appeal and innocence. This was the best segment of the film in my opinion, it demanded more from its audience and had a stellar, fluid screenplay.

After watching Sin City on the big screen, I was full of praise for it and had labeled it one of the best films that I had ever seen, but on the television in the relative safety of your own home it loses some of its impact. In a cinema you are forced to give the movie all of your attention, but at home I found my mind wondering especially throughout the first act. My main gripe was that Sin City wasn't founded in reality; it doesn't illuminate any truth and has an inconsistent pace. When I am watching a movie at home, I look for something different and I tend to enjoy dramas more than action. I feel more capable to take on something heavy and am usually more able to make a fair and balanced assessment of the film I have just watched. After The Hard Goodbye was over I became as engrossed and excited as I remembered though and from then on I was hooked. Sin City really is a very accomplished film, with great thoroughly believable acting and characters, great direction and incomparable visual style.

You Can Buy Sin City On DVD For £12.99 ASIN: B0009I6UYS