Sin City (2005)

Stylistically this movie is ground breaking and original. This movie was the first movie that was shot entirely in front of a blue screen. But the story, or I should say stories, were equally original and wonderfully put together.  However, this movie is not for every which is too bad because it is probably the best movie I have seen in 2005.

The movie is based on the Graphic Novel of the same name written by legendary comic book writer Frank Miller.  The story is actually three stories that are intertwined in three different stories that involve the corruption and the crime of the city and three heroes trying to make things right.  The first story is split into two parts, starting and ending the movie and is about an honest cop who is about to retire because he has a bad heart.  The cop, named Hartigan, played by Bruce Willis (Hostage), is on the hunt for a child rapist/murderer who happens to be the son of a powerful corrupt U.S. Senator.  The son, Rourk Jr., played by Nick Stahl (Terminator 3) kidnaps an 11 year old girl, named Nancy Callahan, and has the worst intentions.  Hartigan catches up with Junior and saves the girl but in the process gets shot by his corrupt partner, Bob, played by Michael Madsen (Kill Bill Vol. 2.)  We end the scene with the 11 year old girl curled up on Hartigan’s dying lap feeling safe.

The second story involves a thug named Marv, played by Mickey Rourke (Man On Fire) who is framed for the murder of a prostitute named Goldie, who was nicer to him than any women ever has been before.  Marv starts on a long trip finding and killing all those responsible for the death of Goldie, which leads him to a psychotic killer who kills prostitutes and eats all but their head which he mounts named Kevin, played brilliantly by Elijah Wood (Lord of The Rings.)  Kevin leads Marv, to his handler, Cardinal Roark, the brother of Senator Rorke, played by Rutger Hauer (Blade Runner.)  Marv confronts the Cardinal and is captured by the police.

The third story involves Dwight, played by Clive Owen (King Arthur,) who starts helping a waitress, Shellie, played by Britany Murphy (Little Black Book) by kicking the ass of her boyfriend who beats on her, played by Benicio Del Toro (Snatch.)  Dwight follows Jackie Boy (Del Toro) into downtown where the cops do not go into because it is controlled by a bunch of hookers who have an agreement with the cops, the cops stay out, and they receive a cut of the profit.  Jackie Boy gets killed by the prostitutes because he tries to hurt one of them.  However, Jackie Boy is a cop, which his death will cause the truce to be broken.  It is now a race against time for Dwight, with the help of the lead hooker, Gail, played by Rosario Dawson (Clerks II) to get Jackie Boy out of the city without the cops knowing who he was killed by.

Of all of the comic book movies that have ever been made, this movie is by far the closest to any comic book to date.  “Sin City” ignores all of the Hollywood political correctness about women being more than sex objects, violence towards children, and heroes who are not necessarily good guys, and takes the stories straight from the book.  Frank Miller, the author of the Sin City graphic novel, also one of the directors of the movie, is one of the better story tellers in the comic book world and his story, as disturbing as it may be, translates to the movies quite well.  Robert Rodriquez, who was the main director of the movie, deserves a lot of the credit for bringing this story to film.  He stayed true to the characters and the story which I did not win him any friends in the political correct community.  He also insisted on Frank Miller being list as a director, which caused him to resign from the Directors Guild of America, instead of having to make compromises on the movie that he was unwilling to do.

The actors all did a wonderful considering that they all had to work with blue screen’s because this movie was one of the first ‘fully-digital’ live action films.  Willis and Rourke were outstanding in their roles and provided a lot of humor.  Rourke’s story was by far the funniest of the three stories, while Willis’s was probably the most disturbing.  Brittany Murphy and Jessica Alba also did a great job in their roles, which were small but important and well done.

Since this movie shows like a comic book, and there are women who, although powerful, are wearing nothing and treated as sex objects, this movie is not for everyone, especially children under 15.  However, I highly recommend this movie, and I predict that it will not only get nominated for an Academy Award for special effects, it may give Star Wars III a run for its money.  Go take a chance and see this movie, Rodriquez did and he should be rewarded for it.

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