Sin City DVD > Reviews > Eh? What? Am I missing something?

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Hated it
Story	Very weak
Characters / Performances	Unmemorable
Special Effects	Unmemorable
Soundtrack	Unmemorable

Advantages:	Its unusual to say the least, most definitely different, good cinematography
Disadvantages:	Weird, silly, far fetched and plain odd

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

Given Sin City (released in 2005) received a LOT of praise (and largely has done well from the reviews written right here on Ciao too), I felt I had to spend a few moments casting my own views on the film for you. Largely because my views differ from those who've rated this film as "5/5 - superb piece of cinematography!", etc, etc.

YES, this film features some superb cinematography. Certainly like nothing I've seen before. It's new, its different, its vibrant. However, that might just be the problem. Is it perhaps TOO new and different? In my books, it is.

Sin City was flagged as being the first film shot with "cartoon strip" style cinematography. Now when I first heard this, I wasn't sure what that actually meant. Did that mean it was essentially a cartoon in feature film length? Was it all drawings and animation? No. It features real actors. However, the real actors are doing unreal things. Sure, maybe they're "superheros", not disimilar to those in films such as "The Fantastic Four". However, the big problem with Sin City is that they are NOT essentially superheros or people perceived as being with super-human powers. They're perceived as being normal people but whom just appear to get hit by cars and continously shot without it seemingly having an effect on them.

This film is just out and out weird. I could finish this review there and be done with it, but for those who may wish to read further, I won't!

In case you've not already guessed, I can honestly say this was one of the worst films I've ever seen. I not only just did not like it, I can, in all honesty say that this film was just plain sick and twisted.

I am a huge horror/thriller fan and would quite happily sit down and watch something as gory and 'scary' as "Saw" or as equally unimaginatively titled, "Saw 2". The point being, these are horror films. They are meant to scare and shock people. They work on me. I know if I sit and watch something like that it does play on my mind for days after. Heck, Blair Witch Project has given me a lifelong phobia of people standing in the corner of a room with their back to me!! However, where Sin City went horribly wrong (in my opinion) is that it ISN'T a horror. It just does nothing. It tries to be so many things and seemingly fails. It isn't remotely scary, jaw dropping, suspence filled, funny, emotional, tear jerking or anything. It just does nothing. The ONLY thing this film made me think was "eh? what the heck is going on? am I missing something here?" I honestly just did not get it. I don't know, maybe I missed the point entirely as it appears I must have missed something as a lot of people rate this film highly. But as these reviews are meant to be personal reviews, I thought I'd do just that, remain completely honest and tell all readers of this review just how rubbish I thought Sin City was!

Sure, there are some top actors playing in Sin City but that did the film no justice whatsoever as some were so contorted you couldn't even make out who they were anyway. Featuring the likes of Bruce Willis (one of the few who looked like who he was), Jessica Alba, Elijah Wood, Clive Owen, Brittany Murphy, to name just a few.

The cinematography in this film sure is different. Perhaps the only selling point for some people? It is shot largely in black and white with the use of colour used sporadically throughout. Some people may like this, I was impressed at how they'd done it myself, but I just didn't like it. Simple as that. It was too "overdone" in my opinion. Seemed like they were relying on being so different to getting them through making possibly one of the worst films in history to me. Seems it worked for some people too!!

Sin City may well be a novel piece of cinematography but I seriously hope film makers don't try to copy this and make further films in this style as, in my books, it was absolutely "pants"! Sin City is an adaptation of Frank Miller's comics (which funnily enough were also called Sin City). I dare say the comics were great, following the lives of three people who lived in Sin City. In a comic, fictional characters, places, etc. work superby. Thats what comics are all about. And fictional films about superheros, (et al) work just as well too but this particular film just did not work in my opinion. It just simply didn't fit together. It seemed disjointed and rushed.

As I mentioned earlier, the film is shot mainly in black and white with the use of strong colours inserted occasionally to enhance the cinematography. This follows on from the same style used in the original comics. The heavy use of silhouettes, shadows and first person narration give a peculiar feeling. Again, maybe I just missed something. Maybe most people liked this film for how 'odd' it actually was?

I honestly have to conclude by saying that I really cannot think of any major good points to this film. The acting wasn't bad by some of the cast but the roles just didn't seem suited to the actors to be honest, at least not in the setting of Sin City anyway. Sure, they are great actors, but they were somewhat ruined by this film. I will happily state that the cinematography was so new and unusual that it was 'good' in respect that it showed just how things like that can be achieved (and successfully too). The rest of the film remained in the "pants" section in my books though. Too far fetched, too little feeling, no emotion of any kind, peculiar feel and setting to the film and at times, just downright sick and twisted. Like I say, watching gory things to me can appeal (being the huge horror fan that I am) but as this film was no where near a horror or anything like it, some of the scenes were just sick and unecessary.

Overall, a completely pointless film with a pointless story line.

Bizarre. Nothing more to be said about it really!

I'm so glad I didn't waste money by seeing this at the cinema. The DVD was wasted money enough but luckily not something I spent money on personally!

To my mind, this film tried to be so many things yet failed on ALL of them except for being out and out weird. I think they tried to do the whole "gore thriller" thing but failed miserably. Its goals were perhaps a little too high, the budget spent on new cinematography rather than perhaps trying to act out a more interesting storyline perhaps? Sure, it all fits together at the end of the film (won't mention how or else it'll spoil it for those who haven't yet seen this film), but I really did waste 124 mins watching this film to reach the 'climax'. Rated an 18 for the 'gore', swearing an brief scenes of nudity I presume. Far from being a true 18 horror or thriller though.

Certainly not recommended. Only given it 1/5 stars because I have to. Otherwise I'd have given it 0/5 in all honesty.

The DVD features the usual extras, such as interviews with cast and crew, edited scenes, etc. Not worth a penny in my opinion. If you insist on purchasing that, please go second hand and grab a bargain off eBay or something. Please don't pay shop prices for this worthless junk!!
 

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