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SIN CITY **** out of *****
 Genres
2005
Directed by Frank Miller Robert Rodriguez Quentin Tarantino (special guest director) Written by Frank Miller (graphic novels) Cast Jessica Alba .... Nancy Callahan Devon Aoki .... Miho Alexis Bledel .... Becky Powers Boothe .... Senator Roark Rosario Dawson .... Gail Benicio Del Toro .... Jackie Boy Michael Clarke Duncan .... Manute Carla Gugino .... Lucille Josh Hartnett .... The Man Rutger Hauer .... Cardinal Roark Jaime King .... Goldie/Wendy Michael Madsen .... Bob Brittany Murphy .... Shellie Clive Owen .... Dwight Mickey Rourke .... Marv Nick Stahl .... Roark Jr./Yellow Bastard Bruce Willis .... Hartigan Elijah Wood .... Kevin
 Sin City is a stylish and dark crime thriller adapted from Frank Miller’s successful series of graphic novels. Shot entirely on green screens, the film has been given a truly unique black & white film noir CGI style. But the CGI is only there to best capture the heart of Sin City: violence, black humour, and people with brutal ideas about honour and duty. If it feels like a filmed comic, that because shots are patterned after the panels in the comic. Which is not a bad thing because Frank Miller is a brilliant artist, and probably not a guy you could usually hire to do your storyboards.
 | | Obligatory Jesicca Alba photo. | Frank Miller has ruled out movie production of this series for over a decade. I even remember a column in one of the earlier issues where he proclaimed that he would never let Hollywood get their hands on the work. Fortunately for us Robert Rodriguez managed to change his mind. He did this by filming a segment featuring Josh Hartnett and Marley Shelton and sending it to Frank Miller to show him what the film could look like with computer generated images and good actors. Rodriguez was able to avoid what Miller feared of the story being bastardised, toned down, or rewritten.
The film weaves together several of the Sin City stories and manages to turn them into a unified whole. We come in and out of the various storylines in a way that’s almost like three shorter films combined, but doesn’t feel as patched together as that. The first involves Bruce Willis as Hartigan, and is based on That Yellow Bastard. Hartigan is an angina-suffering cop trying to track down the child molesting son of a Senator. But his drive to do the right thing and save a young girl puts him up against other cops and the vengeful Senator who won’t let his son take the blame for his actions.
 | What does that sign say in the top
left? Clam pegs? What the hell is a
clam peg? | The second storyline, based on A Hard Good-Bye, follows Mickey Rourke as Marv, a psychotic and violent thug who, as this is Sin City, has his own moral code. A code he follows no matter what the cost to himself and others. After a one night stand with a woman named Goldie he wakes to find her dead and the cops after him. After pounding a whole platoon of police, the almost super-humanly violent Marv cuts a path of destruction through Sin City to avenge Goldie. And lastly is Clive Owen as Dwight, a guy who accidentally triggers a street war in a story based on The Big Fat Kill.
Almost the entire film is narrated, which takes a little getting used to at first. Only occasionally do the narrations seem to go overboard. There’s the occasional moment where I didn’t quite buy the CGI, usually when someone was frozen in an action shot. But these are minor quibbles.
Having so much of Miler’s material to call on means that the film is packed with great characters, even the minor characters seem like they could have films of their own. Also, the fact that the calibre of actors is so high helps immensely. Frank Miller’s hard boiled dialogue needs to be spoken by real actors, and that’s what you get here. This really is Sin City done as well as it could be, the sort of entertaining and grimly violent film that will appeal to the noble psychopath in all of us.
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