Director: Frank Miller, Robert Rodriguez
Writers: Frank Miller, Frank Miller (graphic novels)
Stars: Mickey Rourke, Jessica Alba, Josh Brolin
Synopsis: Some of Sin City’s most hard-boiled citizens cross paths with a few of its more reviled inhabitants.
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DIRECTION
Being a huge fan of print, Sin City is a film that I originally enjoyed as it was a visionary masterpiece that pleased the geek in me with brilliant editing and unique storytelling. In sports it is very hard to achieve success twice, but Frank Miller and Robert Rodriquez show that even in films that is true because Sin City: A Dame to Kill For is shot maybe seven years too late to even make audiences care. Sin City 2 employs a formula so bad that it makes Michael Bay look like an Oscar winner. (Pains me to say that). Miller and Rodriquez’s sequel is all about smashing windows and boobies. The film’s goals are to see how quickly they can get person A through a window and also how many times they can get Eva Green jigglypuffs onscreen. Miller and Rodriquez do bring back their traditional black and white style and I think it helps portray the dark tone of Sin City. In Sin City there are a few splashes of color and each shade of color is used to aim the focus at a particular person or image at that time. Brilliant.
Grade: D
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SCRIPT
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For tells four stories that are interconnected through Marv (Mickey Rourke) and Senator Roark (Powers Boothe). Johnny (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a gambler that is out to destroy the Senator at his own game. Dwight McCarthy (Josh Brolin) finds out what happens when are wiped as the beautiful and lusty Ava Lord (Eva Green) shows that not even Thanos can resist a good infinity stone. The last story shows a Nancy Callahan (Jessica Alba) dealing with the loss of John Hartigan. Overall, the script penned by Miller is solid but the transition onscreen just did not work this time around. The four stories that comprise the film are visually well done but only one actually has any meat to it. The weaker stories are pointlessly used as wraparound material, starting and ending the film. And by stalling and starting these slight stories only brings to the surface that not much goes on within them.
Grade: D
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PERFORMANCES
Mickey Rourke is fantastic as Marv, hardly recognizable but does a great job of being an enforcer in Sin City. Jessical Alba shows a little more depth here than the first time around, especially in the final sequences of the film. Eva Green, while naked a lot, is evil and sells her character well, despite some bad writing around it at times. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is really good although he doesn’t have as much screen time, but is solid when he’s there.
Grade: C
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SCORE
The score is okay and fills the space nicely in some areas but like most of the film, it’s nothing you’ll remember.
Grade: C
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FINAL THOUGHTS
The third story of the film, properly titled A Dame to Kill For, was the most intriguing part of the entire film. The story ran for about 45 minutes and showed Eva Green’s wonderboobs more times than the WWE plugging their 9.99 network. The scene had a nice premise but had so many logic flaws and Miller ruined the strong femme fatale of Ava Lord by making her topless in over 90% of her screen time. If Miller had focused more time on the story, then I think the film would have been more enjoyable as it’s was filled with sex and violence. However, the blatant sexism in this story is going to be a huge turnoff for most movie goers.
