Sin City review, Sin City DVD review

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Buy your copy from Amazon.com Sin City (2005) starstarstarstarhalf star Starring: Jessica Alba, Bruce Willis, Mickey Rourke, Clive Owen, Benicio Del Toro, Rosario Dawson, Michael Madsen, Brittany Murphy, Elijah Wood, Jamie King
Director: Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller
Rating: R
Category: Action/Adventure

ALSO! Check out where it ranked in our 2005 Year in Review.

Watching a midnight showing of “Sin City” is to appreciate the science that is demographics. The crowd was 99% male, 99% white and 99% 23.5 years old. The only women in the theater were dragged there by their boyfriends. The people responsible for marketing this movie knew their demo and, in tradition with the Frank Miller graphic novels (emphasis on graphic) on which the movie is based, they nailed their target audience to a tree and severed its limbs.

There was talk that this was the next “Pulp Fiction,” that the ‘00s had their first generation-defining movie. Now that I have seen both, I’m not sure that is a fair comparison. There is much to admire about Robert Rodriguez’s movie – the art direction and cinematography are utterly peerless, and the casting is pitch perfect – yet the overwhelming sense of nihilism instills a sense of detachment from the first frame. “Pulp Fiction” was a movie filled with bad guys as well, but eventually you saw a sense of decency in nearly all of them. There are good guys here too, but there doesn’t seem to be any point in rooting for them. Of course, if you know that going in, and are okay with it, then have a seat, because “Sin City” has much to offer in terms of cinematic brilliance. But a word to the squeamish: the hypodermic needle scene in “Pulp Fiction” is child’s play compared to what happens here.

The story is a series of loosely interconnected plot threads involving cops both clean and dirty, hookers armed to the teeth (there is one, count it, one woman in this movie who is not a stripper, a hooker or a barmaid, and the first time that character is onscreen, she’s topless), and the vicious psychopaths who taunt them and love them. John Hartigan (Bruce Willis) is a good cop with a bad ticker, who dares to expose the child-molesting son of the town bigwig (Powers Boothe), only to have his own partner (Michael Madsen) shoot him for it. Then there’s a monster-sized ogre named Marv (Mickey Rourke) who beds Goldie, the hottest thing he’s ever seen (Jaime King, also topless), only to wake up and find her dead. On the other side of town is Dwight (Clive Owen), who isn’t too fond of Jack (Benicio Del Toro) or his abusive tendencies toward barmaid Shelly (Brittany Murphy, who must have had cleavage pulled up from her ankles). Only in a city like this would someone like Elijah Wood’s Kevin be the most disturbed, and deadly, of all.

The narration, done by whoever happens to be the “protagonist” at the time, takes a little getting used to. The first few bits feel stilted and awkward. It doesn’t fall into place until Marv takes over the story line about 10 minutes in. The irony will no doubt be lost on no one when I say that Marv, arguably the biggest psycho of the bunch, winds up being the most likable. In fact, Rourke turns in a performance that should inspire a Travolta-esque change of fortune for him.

The feminist backlash that is sure to follow “Sin City” should be interesting to observe. After all, there isn’t a single female in this movie who plays anything nobler than a hot piece of ass. But this is neither the time nor place for political correctness. It’s a comic book, fer Crissakes. Rodriguez recognizes this and gives the movie the geek fanboy hero worship that it deserves. All car sequences, and there are a lot of them, were clearly shot on blue screens with actors on milk crates, and scarcely have car scenes looked so real. If God was anywhere in “Sin City,” he was in the details.

“Sin City” is stunning, astounding, jaw dropping, all of those things, but with an asterisk. For all of the things that Rodriguez, Miller and “special guest director” Quentin Tarantino got right with this movie, we simultaneously hope that it doesn’t inspire a series of unknown directors to up the ante of hookers in peril. “Sin City” is obviously more than that, but not much more, not more to the point where it needs to be improved or expanded upon in any way. The technical work will never be topped, and the subject matter probably shouldn’t be repeated. So let’s leave this one alone, shall we?

~David Medsker

DVD Review:
This is it folks – the one we’ve all been waiting for. After a disappointing single-disc release back in August, director Robert Rodriguez has put together one of the best Special Edition DVDs of the year with the same kind of loving care a father shows to his child. Spread across two discs and packaged in a cardboard slipcover box, the film also includes a paperback version of one of the stories, “The Hard Goodbye.” This is definitely a major plus for fans of Frank Miller’s work, and it’s also a nice introduction for those who know little about the film’s origins, but it’s ultimately one of the reasons why the two-disc box set is so expensive.

The first disc of the set includes the original theatrical release, three audio commentaries, six production featurettes and an interactive guide to Miller’s world. While the first commentary (featuring directors Rodriguez and Miller) is by far the best of the bunch, it’s always a pleasure to listen to Quentin Tarantino (track two) talk about his love for the medium. The addition of an audience reaction (track three) from a screening in Austin, Texas is also welcome alternative to the usual technical jibber-jabber, but the first commentary offers so much character back story from Miller that it’s hard not to favor. Most of the production featurettes on disc one are too short to really enjoy, including a look at how Frank Miller was convinced into making the film, a talk with Tarantino about his stint as special guest director, and four behind-the-scenes features on the cars (“A Hard Top with a Decent Engine”), make-up effects (“Making the Monsters”), props (“Booze, Broads & Guns”) and costumes (“Trench Coats & Fishnets”) used in the film.

Disc two houses the more interesting material in the set, headlined by the brilliant - BRILLIANT - decision to include all four stories as separate entities. Not only can you watch every story as it was meant to be seen, but each one has been re-cut with extra footage that was edited out for the theatrical release. With only 24 minutes of total footage to be found, most of the new material is hardly noticeable, but the stories all seem to work a lot better on their own. Rodriguez has continued the DVD tradition with another edition of “15-Minute Film School” that shows how to exploit the wonders of digital film, and a new “10-Minute Cooking School” for yummy breakfast tacos. Other special features include the option of watching a sped-up “All Green-Screen Version” of the film that takes about ten minutes to get through, a great fly-on-the-wall visit on set during the production of Tarantino’s scene (“The Long Take: 14 Uninterrupted Minutes”), and a live recording of Bruce Willis and the Accelerators performing “Devil Woman.” Now, go out and buy this so you’re not the last kid on the block to do so.

~Jason Zingale