MOVIE REVIEWS
Sin City
Josh Brown
I feel like I just sinned. But if liking this movie truly is a sin, then hand me my ticket to hell right now … and don’t forget the bags of peanuts.
So I finally saw “Sin City,” after putting it off for far too long. My boss, Dustin, saw it the night it opened and told me how incredibly awesome it was the next day. I knew it would be, but I still had some doubts. He warned me it was extremely violent, had plenty of hot females toting weapons (compared it to “Kill Bill 1 & 2”), and was littered with cheesy but effective one-liners. Basically, from what I got out of his description, is that it didn’t stray too far away from the comic.
A few days after that, a lady I know that works at the movie theatre warned me against seeing it, saying that she had several people walk out of it and want their money back. This further advanced my worries, but was still curious. And finally, after hearing several more rave reviews from friends, I decided to go see it. Besides, the lady hooked me up with a free movie pass to see it, so how could I say no? (By the way, thanks Tina … you’re the best)
So there I sat, eagerly awaiting the start of “Sin City,” based on the graphic novels of Frank Miller. I had never actually read any of them, but was vaguely familiar with them. So what made me nervous about the movie? The fact that there were so many big names in it is always enough to make a movie-goer nervous, but when you add the fact that it’s based from a comic book you have a recipe for disaster. Were they featuring so many big stars to make up for a horrible movie? Was the comic book feel to the movie going to be overdone? And why did so many people walk out on it? These answers I would only discover by watching the film, so again, there I sat.
And from the opening scene, I was hooked. A man (Josh Hartnett, who I didn’t even know was in the movie) and a woman on a balcony of a building. It was narrated, and I anticipated the rest of the movie being the same way. Also, it was all black and white, except for the woman’s bright red lipstick and bright red dress. When the man mentioned her beautiful eyes, they lit up green. And after the classic comic book kiss, she was dead, and he stood there holding a gun with a silencer, explaining how he held her until she was gone. Welcome to Sin City, indeed.
The movie itself consists of three separate story lines that tend to cross paths along the line. The first on is Detective Hartigan (Bruce Willis) who is about to retire, but not before solving one last case of a missing little girl who he fears will be raped and killed. The second story line is Marv (Mickey Rourke) who is on an all-for-nothing mission to find the man who killed the beautiful hooker named Goldie (Jamie King) who “was kind” to him, that died while laying next to him in bed. He would not be satisfied until he located the perpetrator and extract revenge with as much torture and pain as possible. The third story line was Dwight (Clive Owen) saving his current girlfriend (Brittany Murphey) from well-known drunk and thug, Jackie Boy (Benicio Del Toro).
The three stories were captivating in their own rights, with the first one coming full circle at the end of the movie. While I was surprised it wasn’t just one storyline with several subplots, like most comic book movies, I thoroughly enjoyed the format. It was almost like watching three movies in one, with them all contributing to the other. I don’t feel this took away from the movie itself, only made it much more enjoyable and captivating, as it left the audience waiting to see how the movie would end.
The most noticeable aspect of the movie was the cinematography. Again, it was all black and white, with certain colors highlighted quite effectively. The shades of red, blue, green, gold and yellow exaggerated the stories, and introduced the comic book feel perfectly. The blood in the movie was either a bright red, yellow, or white … which I thought looked the coolest. The entire time I was watching it, I felt like I was in the comic book, which I’m guessing was their intentions … thankfully. It’s nice to step outside the boundaries of reality for a change and indulge in a fantasy world that could easily be real life. By the end of the movie, all I could think about was how long it took to transform all the colors in the way they did.
The violence was unexpected, and defiantly graphic. But without all the normal colors, it didn’t seem as gruesome. It was high on the shock meter, but low on the turn-your-head-away scale. If anything, the violence was almost humorous, again, going back to the comic book theme. My friend Jimmy said it was too much violence, but I think he’s just being a pussy.
Dialogue was fantastic, as the different narrators made for great explanations of the story while not taking away from the action. The speech had an old-school mobster feel to it, with such language as “broads” and “dames.” The one-liners were cheesy, yes, but obviously used on purpose to further the comic book experience. They were funny because they weren’t serious, not over the top, and not forced.
Speaking of dames, the women in “Sin City” were absolutely phenomenal. Nancy Callahan (Jessica Alba) won my heart with her portrayal of an exotic dancer. The hookers in Old Town were smoking, both in attire and weapons, especially Gail (Rosario Dawson). All of the other girls in the movie were amazingly attractive, which were highlighted perfectly by the black and white mixed with certain colors. Oh, and the plethora of nudity didn’t offend me, either.
By the end of the movie, I was still in the same position I was sitting in before the movie began. All I could say was, “That was fucking awesome.” The best way to fully describe it is “a new age comic book with a retro feel.” While the violence and nudity and overall insanity of the movie made me feel dirty and raw, I’m glad I finally sinned.
