Name: Sin City
Genre: Comic book/ culty/ sci-fi/Revenge film/ noir
Directed by: robert rodriguez, frnak miller, quentin tarrentino
Rating: 18
Rating: 9/10 all round for origionality and fun...ok, Elijah wood bumps it to 9.5/10 biggrin
Sin City...this is a film I've been wanting to watch for a long time, but I wondered if it was one of those stupidly violent sex-obsessed films that'd put me off, something more akin to Hostel than anything else.
Well, it is violent, it thrives on violence as a revenge film. But - a la killbill- it's alright. It works and there's some sort of sick entertainment and pleasure in it. Plus it's not as bad as you'd think, they don't rub your face directly in it. razz
In comparing it to Killbill (and indeed, Pulp Fiction), I don't just make the obvious link to quentin tarrintino because he happens to be a guest director. In trying to describe the genre, you can't go wrong but to look at killbill & pulp fiction to define it.
Interwoven and time-twisted storylines? - check.
Excellent characters? - check
brilliant moody never-takes-selves-too-seirously dialouge? -check
Entertainingly overthetop gore and violence -check
Degying the laws of physics/incredibly tough people and spurty blood -check
Brilliant cinamatography -check
A japanese chick with swords in it somehwere? - check
brilliant revenge pots - check
Culty goodness -double check.
The same genre and it pushes all the same buttons, but of course it's more than just killbill and co. al I'm saying is if you enjoyed two of Tarrentino's masterpieces, you'll enjoy Rodriguez's masterpiece here.
And yes I use the word masterpiece without shame. The film itself is very good - as I'll get to- but I wouldn't call it's plot etc a masterpiece. But the cinematography...now that's something else.
The black and white, the flares of colour, the graphic-novel angles and drama....every frame is a delight to watch.
Plot, narrative, dialouge, ideas, execution, cinematography, characters...they're all so over the top it's almost cheesy, but in such a good way.
To explain the plot would take out much of your enjoyment, and be too long for me to state, since we have several plots of many different characters that interweve. I was a virgin sin-city wtacher, having never read the comics, but the guy i watched it with did, and even uncovered more layers in this great big inky, blood splattered gem of an onion.
The characters, supported by cheesy but gritty 1st person narrative voice overs, are cliches and yet not cliches. There's something to them that takes them away from the cliched characters they could be. It's like you embrace the cliche happily, because it knows it's a cliche and doens't care. It's just having fun, and they're deeper than you first realise. Way deeper.
My personal faves were the hooker gang (this film doesn't have a single weak woman - all are kick a** girls) and elijah wood's performance. It was so refreshing to se ehim ina deliciously creepy and evil role, and the way the cinematograhy was shot really heightened him.
and he didn't scream.....*buwahaha*
After that role I really heighten my repsect for him as an actor - he did a greta job without even talking.
The only acting I have problems with is 'Goldy's acting. Its just damn terrible -haha. But she's a cool character so we'll let that slide.
Basically...watch it. It's certianly got gritty and disurbing elements,but if I can wtach it i'm sure you can. And you'll enjoy it. It's very rarely that such an origional slice of cinema gets served up to you smile
