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| Review by Benn Robbins |
It was just another Wednesday night.
My better half was a bombshell about to detonate from the heat she threw off in the car as we pulled the old tintrap RAV4 into the parking garage.
The florescent lights flickered like a spastic bug zapper in the height of mosquito season on the bayou.
We were here to catch the latest flicker from indie mastermind and Austin native, Robert Rodriguez and the “Old State Line” native who later called The Big Apple “home,” Frank Miller.
They once again knocked their heads together and taking some of Frank’s old graphic novels and a few new inspired stories the have thrown out this latest prequel/sequel to their 2005 masterpiece Sin City.
The theater was a who’s who of the denizens and riff raft expected at one of these things. The floors were a pre-chewed Good n’ Plenty under my foot and the air was rife with the stale popcorn and hot-melted plastic that passes nowadays for nacho cheese.
We picked out seats, reserved because of who we are and what we wanted here.
As the movie started the quiet hush reserved for funerals and church mass washed over the audience and then we were hit like a ton of bricks thrown from a runaway freight train…
Sin City: A Dame To Kill For is once again set in the seedy and hellish Basin City. A city that is all the worst parts of every city in America and the best parts of Detroit all rolled up into a sweet, little package. Deceit, death, sex, blood, bullets and booze with the hardest of the hard cases and the broadest of the broads all out for one thing: Survival.
Having read the graphic novels on which this film was based and having seen the previous installment, I knew what I was in for. The poor saps who sat next to and behind me, however, couldn’t have known that what they were about to experience was a visceral and purely aggressive joy ride in the most dangerous sense.
Rodriguez and Miller, both helming this beast, are in top form. From a visual standpoint this film is, what the kids like to say, a “panel jumper”, as in, panels from the actual comic book jumped off the page and onto the screen. The stark Black and White with hints and splashes of color really get to the screws and nails of the visual story telling: Stark and haunting.
The stories are your basic pulp fiction and hard-boiled detective fodder. Dames in trouble, guys in over their head, tough men and tougher women all come together in four interconnected violent and sexual stories that would make the most worldly viewer blush and turn their head.
Of the films four segments, three, “JUST ANOTHER SATURDAY NIGHT”, “A DAME TO KILL FOR” and “THE LONG, BAD NIGHT” – are prequels to the first film. “THE LONG, BAD NIGHT” was previously unpublished. The fourth story, featuring the aftermath of “THAT YELLOW BASTARD” was written specifically for the film.
Returning to reprise their roles form the first film are Mickey Rourke as simple but dangerous, Marv; Jessica Alba as the troubled, yet sexy, Nancy; Rosario Dawson as the “don’t eff with me” hooker and leader, Gail. Supporting them in reprising roles are Bruce Willis as the only good cop in Sin City, Hartigan, corrupt senator Roark, brilliantly played by Powers Booth, and Jamie King as the twins, Goldie and Wendy.
New players to this world of trouble are Joseph Gordon-Levitt and the dangerous, high roller, Johnny; Eva Green is the stunning and pretty much constantly naked and seductive, Ava, the Dame to Kill for. Ray Liotta is the john, Joey; Christopher Meloni as the ill fated detective, Mort, and Christopher Lloyd as the “doctor,” Kroening.
Interestingly enough this film had to do some shuffling of actors due to the untimely death of Michael Clarke Duncan, in his place as Manute the bodyguard/assassin is perfectly played by Dennis Haysbert. Missing is the character of Shellie, who’s actress, Brittany Murphy was taken from us in 2009. Also absent is Devon Aoki as Miho, due to pregnancy. She is replaced by equally amazing, Jamie Chung. Jeremy Piven replaces Michael Madsen as Bob. Finally, in an inspired bit of casting the role of Dwight the rage filled do-gooder and tarnished white knight that was previously perfectly played by Clive Owen, is played in the prequel portion of this film by gritty and intense, Josh Brolin. Don’t worry, it will all be explained for those of you that have not read the original graphic novels.
All in all this film was exactly what I wanted and hoped for from a Sin City movie. It definitely could have gone the way of The Spirit, also a Frank Miller film, or it could have gone the way of the Matrix trilogy. In other words very badly.
With Rodriguez and his Troublemaker Studios in control, you have nothing to worry about. In fact, if you were like me, you will be overjoyed at seeing this series continue and in the best ways possible. My only issue, if I were to name one, is that the two short stories Miller penned for this film specifically that was not a part of the original comics were a little weaker than the others but when mixed together the movie as a whole flows like a smokey fine 18 year scotch on its way to warm your belly.
In a summer full of comic based films and films inspired by comic books, it is nice to have on that isn’t for the kids.
This one is definitely for adults and is full of violence and sex and like the title of one of the original graphic novels claims, Booze, Broads, and Bullets.
