I first heard about this movie about a week before it came out on the big screen when a friend of mine (who is a Sin City comic book fanatic) started to tell me about the movie and only minutes later the trailer came on TV. and I knew that it was a must see.

Plot

This movie is based on a comic book which I have never before seen in my entire life. I don't think that you need to have read the comic book to make sense out of the movie, but I think that it would have helped make the beginning and end make a little more sense. There are many different stories going on inside of Sin City which weave together in Quentin Tarantino's (co-director) signature way. In the first scene, Hartigan (played by Bruce Willis) is a police officer on the verge of retirement. He only has one lose end to tie up before he can let himself retire, there is a child molester (Junior played by Nick Stahl) on the loose who is the son of a predominant senator. Junior already has his next victim, 10 year old Nancy, tied up and Hartigan has to save her.

In the second scene, an incredibly ugly barbarian named Marv (played by Mickey Rourke) who has fallen in love with a strange woman named Goldie (played by Jamie King) only to find her dead in his arms in the morning. Marv sets out on a mission to avenge her death and, with the help of a few prostitutes, goes on a brutal killing spree torturing and killing anyone who had anything to do with Goldie's death.

In scene three, Shellie the bartender (played by Brittany Murphy) is being threatened through a chained door by her ex-boyfriend Jack (played by Benicio Del Toro). Dwight, Shellie's new "boyfriend" (played by Clive Owen), jumps to her rescue scaring Jack away. This wasn't good enough for Dwight and he goes out to stop Jack from hurting other people. Only after he and some prostitutes slaughter and rob Jack and his four friends do they realize that he was a police officer. Now they have to dispose of the body to keep the prostitutes' turf free of police.

Scene four and we are back to Hartigan who surprisingly survived what should have been his death in scene one. Since the Junior was a senator's son, Hartigan took the blame for his crimes. Nancy sent him letters every week for eight years until they mysteriously stop. He thinks that she is in trouble so he takes the blame for Junior's crimes to go check on her. Nancy is now a stripper who is madly in love with Hartigan and Junior still wants to rape her to get revenge on Hartigan.

In about a two hour period half of the population of Sin City are brutally slaughtered, quite a good story line if you ask me.

Cast

Holy crap, I was blown away with the number of stars in this movie. I don't know how they managed to fit so much talent into a two hour period, but they did. I've never really been a big Clive Owen fan, but he just blew me away as Dwight in this movie. I think he was about 10 times better in Sin City than he was in Closer. Bruce Willis, Jessica Alba, and Jaime King all did an amazing job in this movie. Even though I am a huge Brittany Murphy fan, I found her to be quite cheesy in this movie and probably one of my least favorite characters (right along with Junior who is mustard-yellow in the fourth scene).

Crew

Going only by rumors, I was told that there was NO scenery for this movie and that it was done entirely on blue screen. I'm really amazed. I loved the black and white with only some odd things being brilliantly colored effect. That was what initially drew me into the movie, I was curious to see if there was a pattern on which things were colored, but I didn't see one. Even though there was a ton of violence, it really wasn't gruesome which was great for me because I have a weak stomach. Great job with make-up and costumes.

Verdict

Go see this movie. There's violence, but its not gory. There's nudity, but its not pornographic. I cannot think of a time that this brilliant cast will ever be in a film together. There were tons of characters and almost all of them were brilliant. I didn't understand the first five minutes of the beginning or end of the movie because "The Salesman" (played by Josh Hartnett) was never actually introduced into the plot, he was just there for the first and last five minutes and I didn't get that. Upon walking out of the movie my boyfriend started calling all of his friends to tell them that they HAVE to see this movie. He even interrupted my phone call with one of my friends to tell her that she also HAS to see this movie. I can see this movie ending up to be a cult classic favorite amongst the ranks of Pulp Fiction and Rocky Horror Picture Show.

"This is the best f**king movie I have ever seen."-My Ex-Boyfriend


Technical
Directors: Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez
Writer (of the movie and comic book): Frank Miller
Release Date: April 1, 2005
Stars: Rosario Dawson, Elijah Wood, Bruce Willis, Jessica Alba, Benicio Del Toro, Carla Gugino, Josh Hartnett, Jamie King, Brittany Murphy, Clive Owen, Mickey Rourke, and Nick Stahl
Rated: R (and it definitely should be)
Length: 126 minutes

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age