Sin City DVD > Reviews > Welcome to Sin City, try not to get shot!

Author's product rating:   

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

Advantages:	Acting, effects, plot
Disadvantages:	lack of special features

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

2005 brought with it many great movies and many pretty crap movies but one of the best has to be Sin City. Boasting a cast list of over a dozen 'A' list stars and the tagline, "Walk down the right back alley in Sin City and you can find anything" it was known this was a movie not to be missed. Hearing many mixed reviews about this film I decided not to go to the cinema to see it but wait until Katy bought it on DVD. So when she got it we sat down and watched two hours of pure brilliance. Sin City has also brought around a generation of adapting graphic novels. Sin City had many stories all written by Frank Miller and now film makers want their own piece of the action.

The plot of this film is a little difficult to describe as it consists of three different stories that sometimes interlink within one another.

Hartigan is a cop, one of the few decent cops left in Sin City. He is close to finding a man who has killed many young girls. When he saves one girl a dirty cop sets him up as the killer and he spends years in prison. Then one day he realises the girl he saved, Nancy, is in danger once more so he decides he must help her again.

Marv is a big brute of a man who you would not want to meet in a dark alley. He is extremely strong and psychotic. He is an outcast and ignores everyone but when his one true love is killed he goes on a revenge mission. He needs to bring justice to Goldie and the only way he can think of to do it is by killing people.

Dwight is the love of Shellie but one night he must help Gail, a prostitute from Old Town who is being bothered by Jackie, a cruel man with an appetite for violence. But things don't go as easily as they expected when they find out who Jackie really is and what he could do to them all.

So that's the stories in the film, I can't really go into much more detail as it would ruin the film for you. I completely love this film and think it is one of the most original and best ideas Hollywood has had for awhile. The stories are all from Frank Miller's novels but the way they have been adapted is brilliant. The stories are interesting and packed with action. Apart from Hartigan's story, which I found to be a bit slow to begin with, each one leaves you on the edge of your seat, the action unrelenting.

What you should also know is that there isn't much dialogue in this film between the characters. Instead most of the film is dominated by the three main character's narration. To some this can get quite annoying but if you just follow the story while listening, it is a wonderful way to empathise with the characters, even if it is only the main three that provide this.

The most interesting aspect of this film is how it is filmed. I can't really think how to describe it but the entire film is filmed in black and white yet with some colour splashed in. However it is not normal black and white but seems quite cartoonish in a way. I love this and I think it gives the film and edgy feel to it, making the violence and brutality seem more final and disturbing. Like one scene where a gun is fired and the blood comes away in bright colour. I love this as the colour interfaced with the black and white of the film is bright and stylish making you pay more attention to what's happening.

The direction is fantastic, Robert Rodriguez you are brilliant! The camera angles, the use of colour and lighting, sounds and music, everything was used perfectly to create a stylish, sexy and slick movie. My favourite director Quentin Tarantino also had a small guest direction in this film. The one scene he directed is of course, sick, funny and twisted. I won't say which scene he did, I'll let you try and figure it out.

The ideas put forward in this film are one of the aspects that I love. It is set in a time period that we can understand, twenty-first century, yet the actual city is nothing like we have seen before. Where chaos and disturbance rules this is a city where violence will get you what you want. Yes I know it sounds a lot like our cities at the moment but 'Basin City', as it is properly called is a place where the only work women can get is stripping basically and where every man has to carry a gun. The police are all dirty and will do or say anything for the right price. I find it interesting how violence in our society is not accepted yet it happens every day in different forms yet we still have a certain amount of chaos. In Sin City violence spreads like a virus yet there are certain laws and boundaries such as Old Town belongs to the women, a place where the police wouldn't even dare to go.

The special effects provided in this film are brilliant! We see bullets smashing into people's brains, wolves eating humans, people jumping off buildings and of course, explosions. Different styles of directing are used at different parts but each scene is mesmerising. For example when someone shoots themselves all we see is their silhouette which makes it quite a spooky and haunting scene. The entire film was filmed in front of a green screen so each actor had to act without any props or buildings which I think would have been extremely hard to do but they pulled it off.

The acting in this film is top notch with every actor and actress giving their all. Filled with 'A' listers you would expect this film to be an over hyped piece of crap, but believe me it is not. The cast bring together a certain amount of style and reputation. Bruce Willis, Clive Owen and Mickey Rourke as the three main characters just show the quality of acting provided in this film.
The cast
Bruce Willis John Hartigan
Clive Owen Dwight McCarthy
Mickey Rourke Marv
Jessica Alba Nancy Callahan
Rosario Dawson Gail
Benicio Del Toro Jackie
Brittany Murphy Shellie
Nick Stahl Roark Jr/Yellow Bastard
Michael Madsen Bob
Elijah Wood Kevin
Jaime King Goldie/Wendy
Michael Clarke Duncan Manute
Josh Hartnett The Man

So that's the massive cast of stars. Most of them were cast extremely well and the director wanted each actor to look like their respective character so make up was an essential part of this film. However if you look at the graphic novels and then at the actors, there is a striking resemblance between most of them. Elijah Wood is probably the strangest person to be cast his role. He plays Kevin, an extremely weird psycho. Would you expect this from everyone's favourite hobbit? Well don't worry because he pulls it off quite well, even I got a little bit creeped out by him. The rest of the casting was just brilliant and I think giving Benicio Del Toro the role of the vindictive Jackie was just inspired as he pulls it off perfectly.

Special features

Well for a massive successful film with an 'A' list of stars acting in it you would expect the DVD to be bursting at the seams with special features. Well I was and I was extremely disappointed when I found that this DVD had one measly feature. Behind the scenes of Sin City follows the backstage antics of what happened while filming. It shows how they made the film with the green screen and how they tried to make the film as much like the graphic novel as they could. Ok so it's a bit interesting but I was expecting more so the lack of special features really annoys me.

Overall Opinion

Well is there much else I can say about this wonderful film. Yes its violent, yes it's a bit disgusting and disturbing at times, but hell that's why we like it! The acting's brilliant, the direction is inspiring and the humour provided in parts is hilarious. Yes everything about this film is wonderful. My only disappointment is the lack of special features which I have to say brings down my overall mark on this film. However I do recommend this film as it such great fun to watch, but if you do get a bit squeamish at films, well you're not really going to get to watch much of this film!

Runtime: 119 minutes approximately
Certificate: 18 for strong bloody violence
Price: £7.97 from amazon.co.uk. For that cheap price I really recommend you buy it!