Sin City DVD > Reviews > A Sinning City

Author's product rating:   

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

Advantages:	The blood and gore
Disadvantages:	May be too gruesome for some

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Until a few days ago I had no idea what this film was actually about . I had some thought but of the story line I knew nothing. Then thanks to the BBC for showing it on BBC3 and my boyfriend watching the DVD, I know realise what all the fuss was about and how superb the film is.

Released on April 1st 2005 at 124 running minutes long this film is combined of three of Frank Millers graphic novels.

These are;
The Hard Goodbye
The Big Fat Kill
That Yellow B*stard

With a million and one celebrity actors involved in this ensemble cast I could talk about their past films for hours but I will stick to naming some of the main charters I'm sure you will recognise the names anyway.

Characters;

Hartigan = played by Bruce Willis, is the stereotypical good cop, always willing to take the fall to save someone he cares about, even if it does mean sacrificing his own life. R even alienating himself for the sake of an eleven year old girl.

Marv = played by Mickey Rourke The man who uses his brute strength to win his way in life. Seems that he has the connection to find out all he needs to know and if not he will force the truth out of anyone he fells might even know a shred. Ultimately dies in the face of injustice.

Nancy = played by Jessica Alba, the token beauty, the reward to Hartigan's perseverance of eight years in prison. Nancy began as the young defenceless eleven year old and bloomed into a beautiful nineteen year old girl.

Shellie = played by Brittany Murphy, though not in the film for very long, she portrays a more modern woman who fights back to being abused and refuses to be dictated to by a man.

Gail = played by Rosario Dawson, head and leader of Old Town, looks after all her girls and keeps the peace and the truce with the police and the mob. The on/off lover with Dwight.

Dwight = played by Clive Owen, the on/off lethario, with not only Gail but Shellie. A man who feels the need to protect regardless of the consequences and thinks before acting, so ahs to this of a plan to compensate for his actions.

Jackie = played by Benicio Del Toro, an undercover cop played out to be an evil bloke with a thirst for female blood. Jackie suffers a more amusing death at the hands of a women, wrongly of course prompting the catalyst for the downfall of the prostitute/police truce.
The Plot;

Josh Hartnet's small role starts the film, shooting a woman on a rooftop, exclaiming he will 'cash her cheque tomorrow. Setting the scene for multiple murders and inevitable deaths.

Police inspector Hartigan, is about to begin his retirement, early due to angina, but wants to have his final shinning moment saving young Nancy. Which despite doing so successfully and rendering her captor powerless, minus his manhood and in a mass of blood and his own gore. Running toward the docks to save this poor girl, Hartigan is shot in a hope that Nancy will now be safe he falls unconscious.

Time then speeds up eight years and the scene cuts to Marv and a night he spend with a high grade prostitutes, who ends up dead next to him. Marv wondering how exactly someone managed to murder this girl goes about to avenge her death leading him into many traps along the way, and discovering some unsavoury things along the way.

In his quest for revenge, Marv ends up losing a friend but also discovers the murder of his beloved 'Goldie, all this happened on the Roarke family farm where Marv exacted his revenge on 'Kevin.' who is later to be discovered to be a cannibal who likes to eat the souls of prostitutes. For all his murders and his revenge Marv is sentenced to an execution, for murders that even he did not commit, proving that even in films the justice system does not work! Although despite the best efforts of the executioner, Marv does not give up his life without a fight, making it two attempts in the chair to finally extinguish the light in his eyes.

The extinguish of Marv's life gives way to more murder and grisly deaths. Barmaid Shellie is hiding her new boyfriend from an old fling, cop, Jack Rafferty. Dwight bursts onto the scene to defend his girlfriend and speeds about to take revenge for his love, leading him straight into the arms of his former lover, Gail.

Leading again to the untimely deaths of Jackie and his friends at the hands of Miho, despite multiple warnings from Dwight. The death of jack meant a level of discontent arose from the idea that the truce between the prostitutes and the police and mob had indefinitely been severed. In an attempt to save the girls Dwight [promises to dispose of the bodies nearly drowning in the tar pits himself, a plan is formulated to exact even more revenge on the men and give the message to those trying to scare the girls that they will not be beaten. Resulting in the deaths of many men and freedom for the girls.

Hartigan comes out of hospital into prison for falsely accused crimes, and is released and leads the mysterious yellow stalker right to Nancy, beauty at nineteen dancing in a bar where we see Marv before his execution. Nancy's life is once again in danger so Hartigan defends the girl he loves and commits suicide knowing at last she can be safe.

Extras;
Behind the scenes, which take you around the set and interviews with producers and characters.

My opinion;

This film is well worthy of its 18 rating as there is much blood shed across the film. There are some scenes of graphic nudity that anyone under 18 would actually be uncomfortable watching, along with the brutal scenes of murder and torturous abuse suffered by a few characters.

Consistently keeps you on the edge of your seat and makes you jump every time a gun is fired at someone you expect them to die, but to be honest despite sustaining awful injuries many of the characters survive which in real life we know would never happen. Though that is the beauty of Hollywood you can have some unreal things and it is acceptable because we know it is not real. Not realistic but to me it does seem a little reflective of today's society in the bloody thirst world in which we live. Maybe not so much the cannibalism but defiantly the violence. Though we have no idea what people do behind closed doors!

Defiantly though this has to be one of the best adaptations of films in the past few years because, it has a good mix of both blood, gore and in some places especially a certain someone's execution, the comedy. Never mind this though the film is one that you can watch over and over without getting bored.

Where and how much?

Play.com = £7.99
Amazon = 4.98
Zavvi = £9.99