Sunday, April 24, 2005
Theatrical Review: Sin City
Wendy's Review:
Let me start off by saying that I am not a comic geek. I wish I was, but unfortunately I am not. To be honest, I’ve only been reading comics for about 3 years. Well unless you count the Archie, Rocky and Bullwinkle, and Foofur comics that I read when I was in elementary school.
However, I am a film geek. When I saw the first preview for Sin City late last year, it was all I could do to keep from jumping up and down. I love new visionary films. I get tired of the same old thing. Sin City looked like it would be fresh. It looked like a comic come alive. And this was just a preview. I still had to wait six months to see the film.
Then Sin City came out, and so did the reviews. They were all talking about how violent it was. This worried me because I am a huge wuss when it comes to violence. However, I should have been prepared for this considering that this is Frank Miller.
Finally, Darrell and I were able to get babysitting, and go see Sin City in the theater. I was a little nervous going in, but I trusted that regardless of how violent it ended up being, it would still be new and innovative. Yes, Sin City is violent, very violent. But it is like watching a bloody cartoon. The violence never once bothered my weak stomach. And that is saying something. However, for context, the Kill Bill movies don’t upset me when it comes to violence either.
Sin City tells three intertwining tales. Each one has its own good qualities. The best one, though, is “The Hard Goodbye.” Marv, played by Mickey Rourke, is so much fun. He has some really nifty powers, and some great lines. Mickey Rourke is great in this film. I am not a huge Mickey Rourke fan. I did enjoy him in 9 1/2 Weeks, but I can’t even name another film he’s been in since then. However, he is perfectly cast in Sin City, and I can’t imagine anyone else in the role of Marv.
My next favorite character is Miho. She is amazingly brutal. A hooker without a heart if gold. I would hate to get on her bad side, but I would love to have her looking out for me. She doesn’t talk much, but she doesn’t need to because her actions speak far louder than words.
The thing that surprised me about Sin City was how funny it is. I laughed out loud so many times. I expected violence. I expected nudity. I expected perversions. However, I did not expect humor. The scene that I consider to be the funniest involves a car ride between Dwight (Clive Owen) and Jackie Boy (Benicio Del Toro). It is a sick, weird, and hilarious scene.
Oh, don’t let the posters and previews lead you wrong. This is not the Jessica Alba movie. While, yes, Jessica Alba is in Sin City she is not in it very much. So if you plan to see Sin City just to see Jessica Alba, then you are going for the wrong reasons. I suggest you wait for Fantastic Four this summer. I am sure her role will be more substantial in that film.
Sin City is a hard R movie. It is definitely not for children. I am surprised that is got by without an NC-17, but I am guessing that the reason is due to big names. Had it been a lesser known cast and/or director, I doubt that Jack Valenti would have let this by with an R rating.
Sin City is a wonderful movie. Sin City is well acted, and beautifully directed. I am convinced now that the best way to make a comic movie is to have the writer of the comic co-direct it. Then you can guarantee that the vision is preserved on the big screen. I know that isn’t always possible, but we can all dream.
Darrell's Review:
A while back, MCF wrote that one of the things that excites him is that “comic book movie” is now a legit genre in the film industry. That makes me happy, too… and what makes me happier is that over the past several years, there have been a number of very good comic book movies. What’s more, Hollywood has turned out several movies that are as good as they are radically different from each other, just like the comic books themselves. Consider the big action and bigger heart of Spider-Man 2, the dark, grunge comedy of American Splendor, the teen angst of Ghost World, the horror-action of Blade, and the gothic romance of The Crow. Now, add to the mix the hyper-violent, heavily stylized KO punch of Sin City… and consider that Sin City is the most literal screen adaptation of a comic book ever made. It’s hard to imagine that this period of film history will be remembered as anything other than “the comic book years.”
By bringing Frank Miller’s dark, perverse Sin City books to the screen as faithfully as possible, Robert Rodriguez has done the seemingly impossible. Think about it, Sin City is blazingly original because it is so faithful to the source material… and that source material seemed blazingly original because it was faithful to the mood and tone of classic film noir. Rodriguez’s film succeeds because it passes through comics and back to film again, showing us something familiar and new through the filter of Frank Miller’s imagination. Anything this incestuously conceived shouldn’t work, but it does. Boy, does it ever.
Imagine a cross between The Third Man, Natural Born Killers, and Pulp Fiction, with all the darkness, energy, humor, and originality of those films.
With computer generated sets and heavy makeup, Sin City looks amazingly like the comic book itself. It’s the kind of film that should be seen several times; once just to marvel at the visuals, again to enjoy the larger than life characters (played to the bone by, among others, Bruce Willis, Clive Owen, Nick Stahl, Benicio Del Toro, Rosario Dawson, and the brilliant Mickey Rourke), then once more to just listen to and enjoy the dialogue and language, and maybe again just to take in the film’s outstanding score.
There’s so much to love about Sin City. If I had to pick a favorite element, though, it would be The Hard Goodbye, the vignette that revolves around Mickey Rourke’s character, Marv. Looking like a cross between The Thing and Mike Hammer, equal parts homicidal maniac and star-crossed lover, Marv is the kind of character you can’t take your eyes off of, and Rourke nails it with a perfect performance. I wasn’t a Mickey Rourke fan before I saw Sin City. I am now. If this movie doesn’t re-energize his career, the way Pulp Fiction did for Travolta, then there’s no justice in Hollywood.
Do NOT take your kids to see Sin City. I have to believe that it’s R rating was almost a fluke. The film should have been NC-17, considering that mutilation, prostitution, beheadings, cannibalism, murder, sexual abuse, castration, and drug abuse all take place inside of two hours. The movie doesn’t glorify those things, though… the movie’s heroes, such as they are, are the men who have something of a moral code and fight against those things.
Sin City is a visual masterpiece and might even be landmark cinema. You’ll never forget it, and if you’re a fan of comic book films, you’ll probably see it as a new template by which others should be judged.
¶ 7:22 PM 
Wendy's Review:
Let me start off by saying that I am not a comic geek. I wish I was, but unfortunately I am not. To be honest, I’ve only been reading comics for about 3 years. Well unless you count the Archie, Rocky and Bullwinkle, and Foofur comics that I read when I was in elementary school.
However, I am a film geek. When I saw the first preview for Sin City late last year, it was all I could do to keep from jumping up and down. I love new visionary films. I get tired of the same old thing. Sin City looked like it would be fresh. It looked like a comic come alive. And this was just a preview. I still had to wait six months to see the film.
Then Sin City came out, and so did the reviews. They were all talking about how violent it was. This worried me because I am a huge wuss when it comes to violence. However, I should have been prepared for this considering that this is Frank Miller.
Finally, Darrell and I were able to get babysitting, and go see Sin City in the theater. I was a little nervous going in, but I trusted that regardless of how violent it ended up being, it would still be new and innovative. Yes, Sin City is violent, very violent. But it is like watching a bloody cartoon. The violence never once bothered my weak stomach. And that is saying something. However, for context, the Kill Bill movies don’t upset me when it comes to violence either. Sin City tells three intertwining tales. Each one has its own good qualities. The best one, though, is “The Hard Goodbye.” Marv, played by Mickey Rourke, is so much fun. He has some really nifty powers, and some great lines. Mickey Rourke is great in this film. I am not a huge Mickey Rourke fan. I did enjoy him in 9 1/2 Weeks, but I can’t even name another film he’s been in since then. However, he is perfectly cast in Sin City, and I can’t imagine anyone else in the role of Marv.
My next favorite character is Miho. She is amazingly brutal. A hooker without a heart if gold. I would hate to get on her bad side, but I would love to have her looking out for me. She doesn’t talk much, but she doesn’t need to because her actions speak far louder than words.
The thing that surprised me about Sin City was how funny it is. I laughed out loud so many times. I expected violence. I expected nudity. I expected perversions. However, I did not expect humor. The scene that I consider to be the funniest involves a car ride between Dwight (Clive Owen) and Jackie Boy (Benicio Del Toro). It is a sick, weird, and hilarious scene.
Oh, don’t let the posters and previews lead you wrong. This is not the Jessica Alba movie. While, yes, Jessica Alba is in Sin City she is not in it very much. So if you plan to see Sin City just to see Jessica Alba, then you are going for the wrong reasons. I suggest you wait for Fantastic Four this summer. I am sure her role will be more substantial in that film.Sin City is a hard R movie. It is definitely not for children. I am surprised that is got by without an NC-17, but I am guessing that the reason is due to big names. Had it been a lesser known cast and/or director, I doubt that Jack Valenti would have let this by with an R rating.
Sin City is a wonderful movie. Sin City is well acted, and beautifully directed. I am convinced now that the best way to make a comic movie is to have the writer of the comic co-direct it. Then you can guarantee that the vision is preserved on the big screen. I know that isn’t always possible, but we can all dream.
Darrell's Review:
A while back, MCF wrote that one of the things that excites him is that “comic book movie” is now a legit genre in the film industry. That makes me happy, too… and what makes me happier is that over the past several years, there have been a number of very good comic book movies. What’s more, Hollywood has turned out several movies that are as good as they are radically different from each other, just like the comic books themselves. Consider the big action and bigger heart of Spider-Man 2, the dark, grunge comedy of American Splendor, the teen angst of Ghost World, the horror-action of Blade, and the gothic romance of The Crow. Now, add to the mix the hyper-violent, heavily stylized KO punch of Sin City… and consider that Sin City is the most literal screen adaptation of a comic book ever made. It’s hard to imagine that this period of film history will be remembered as anything other than “the comic book years.”
By bringing Frank Miller’s dark, perverse Sin City books to the screen as faithfully as possible, Robert Rodriguez has done the seemingly impossible. Think about it, Sin City is blazingly original because it is so faithful to the source material… and that source material seemed blazingly original because it was faithful to the mood and tone of classic film noir. Rodriguez’s film succeeds because it passes through comics and back to film again, showing us something familiar and new through the filter of Frank Miller’s imagination. Anything this incestuously conceived shouldn’t work, but it does. Boy, does it ever.
Imagine a cross between The Third Man, Natural Born Killers, and Pulp Fiction, with all the darkness, energy, humor, and originality of those films.With computer generated sets and heavy makeup, Sin City looks amazingly like the comic book itself. It’s the kind of film that should be seen several times; once just to marvel at the visuals, again to enjoy the larger than life characters (played to the bone by, among others, Bruce Willis, Clive Owen, Nick Stahl, Benicio Del Toro, Rosario Dawson, and the brilliant Mickey Rourke), then once more to just listen to and enjoy the dialogue and language, and maybe again just to take in the film’s outstanding score.
There’s so much to love about Sin City. If I had to pick a favorite element, though, it would be The Hard Goodbye, the vignette that revolves around Mickey Rourke’s character, Marv. Looking like a cross between The Thing and Mike Hammer, equal parts homicidal maniac and star-crossed lover, Marv is the kind of character you can’t take your eyes off of, and Rourke nails it with a perfect performance. I wasn’t a Mickey Rourke fan before I saw Sin City. I am now. If this movie doesn’t re-energize his career, the way Pulp Fiction did for Travolta, then there’s no justice in Hollywood.
Do NOT take your kids to see Sin City. I have to believe that it’s R rating was almost a fluke. The film should have been NC-17, considering that mutilation, prostitution, beheadings, cannibalism, murder, sexual abuse, castration, and drug abuse all take place inside of two hours. The movie doesn’t glorify those things, though… the movie’s heroes, such as they are, are the men who have something of a moral code and fight against those things. Sin City is a visual masterpiece and might even be landmark cinema. You’ll never forget it, and if you’re a fan of comic book films, you’ll probably see it as a new template by which others should be judged.
¶ 7:22 PM
Comments:
Spot-on. I especially liked that observation of Miller being a filter that added something new, because HIS inspiration was film noir.
I've read all the comics, and reread them before seeing the movie. Knowing what was going to happen didn't change my reaction. The funniest moment for me had to be Nicky Katt with the arrow. I remember the scene from the book but hearing it aloud, with his delivery of the lines, was perfectly hilarious.
Wendy is the second person I've heard refer to Marv as having "powers"; a woman at work said the same thing after reading the first graphic novel. I never thought of Marv, or anyone, in the series as having powers. Miller was writing real people, not superheroes. Marv DOES do some superhuman things like knocking the door off the hinges, surviving long falls, holding his breath underwater, and that bit with the electric chair. I never took any of it to imply that he was superhuman though, just a tough human possibly with his pain centers dulled by his medications.
It's an interesting question though. I think Dwight's musing about Marv being a throwback to an earlier time sums it up. Which in a way, would make him a mutant with powers, but Miller didn't treat it like a superhero book so it worked for the noir genre.
Post a Comment
I've read all the comics, and reread them before seeing the movie. Knowing what was going to happen didn't change my reaction. The funniest moment for me had to be Nicky Katt with the arrow. I remember the scene from the book but hearing it aloud, with his delivery of the lines, was perfectly hilarious.
Wendy is the second person I've heard refer to Marv as having "powers"; a woman at work said the same thing after reading the first graphic novel. I never thought of Marv, or anyone, in the series as having powers. Miller was writing real people, not superheroes. Marv DOES do some superhuman things like knocking the door off the hinges, surviving long falls, holding his breath underwater, and that bit with the electric chair. I never took any of it to imply that he was superhuman though, just a tough human possibly with his pain centers dulled by his medications.
It's an interesting question though. I think Dwight's musing about Marv being a throwback to an earlier time sums it up. Which in a way, would make him a mutant with powers, but Miller didn't treat it like a superhero book so it worked for the noir genre.
