The actors are all on fine form, chewing the scenery and narrating meaty
slices of film noir dialogue with relish. Mickey Rourke's Marv steals the
show with his lantern jaw and imperviousness to serious injury (watch him as
he's knocked into the air like a ragdoll by a vengeful car driver!) Rourke
not only looks perfect under layers of latex, but he has the essence of the
character burned within him and reels off the dialogue and goofy one-liners
with great composure.
Clive Owen, while the weakest of the three male leads, nevertheless creates
a dashing antihero, and Bruce Willis (while essentially resurrecting Pulp
Fiction's Butch in a trench coat) remains as steadfastly charismatic and
grizzled as ever.
Rounding out the cast is a veritable who's who of Hollywood talent (and
Rodriguez alumni): Jessica Alba is suitably sassy as table-dancer Nancy,
Brittany Murphy is okay but her voice grates throughout as a saloon
waitress, Benecio Del Toro conjures a sinister villain with creepy vocals,
Elijah Wood is deliciously sinister as light-footed cannibal Kevin and
Rosario Dawson is great as hard-ass hooker Gail. Peripheral characters from
Carla Gugino, Alexis Bledel, Michael Clarke Duncan, Rutger Hauer, Josh
Hartnett, Devon Aoki, and everyone else are also solid creations.
It's a testament to Rodriguez and Miller that such note-perfect performances
were pulled from a greenscreen environment that seemingly thwarted George
Lucas' efforts in the Star Wars prequels. The visual effects throughout are
generally very good live-action representations of comic book drawings,
although there are occasions throughout (particularly in the first third)
that are too obviously "unnatural" and badly composed.
Occasionally the movie resembles intercut sequences from a video game,
although once you have settled into Sin City's groove this becomes less
noticeable. Obviously, virtual sets being used to this extreme is a
relatively new undertaking - and it's clear the directors were gradually
becoming more at ease with the greenscreen process. By the half-way point,
the process has almost become unnoticeable.
Sin City is also notable for its shocking use of graphic violence. Of
course, the multiple beheadings, dismemberments, hangings, shootings and
slashings all escape the censor due to Sin City's stylized monochrome colour
scheme, but the gore is still unwaveringly powerful in its depiction. Dashes
of colour permeate through this black and white world: golden manes of hair,
the blue of eyes, and - of course - the red of freshly spilt blood. This
only adds to the imaginative streak of the piece, and makes the copious
amount of bloodletting more palatable for audiences.
To summarise; Sin City is a rollercoaster ride of macho entertainment.
Anyone after a whirlwind ride through a dark metropolis populated by
nefarious characters caught in impossible situations, being doused with
bullets, while simultaneously crashing cars, detonating bombs and having
their hands chopped off by swastika-shaped ninja stars, will love every
bloody second.
The plots may be simplistic adult-themed tales, essentially - hoping only to
elicit maximum squirm factor by their implausible, yet fascinating, dive
into seedy and violent territory... but, with a movie called Sin City, what
did you expect?
This is grandiose filmmaking for every testosterone-fuelled male (and some
females, I'm sure) to gawp at, while also providing welcome slices of jet
black comedy (a body-impaling arrow gag is sublime.)
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
