No, it’s not as good as the original, but Sin City: A Dame to Kill For still finds Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez doing their best to make a worthy follow-up, and they come surprisingly close. Of course, back in 2005 when Sin City came out, no one had seen anything quite like its stark, utterly stylized black and white — with spots of color — in a movie before. That’s the sort of thing that can never be repeated. (Miller himself used the same approach in his vastly underrated 2008 film The Spirit.) Even very effective 3-D doesn’t change that look, so there’s nothing so stylistically startling this round. Also, there’s less black humor here, nor is the new film as shocking in general. Now, that might be attributed to me being more jaded nine years later, but I watched the original a couple of weeks ago and thought, “This is really nasty stuff.” (That is not a criticism with this type of movie.) It may sound like I’m down on the new film, but I’m not. It wouldn’t matter anyway, since Sin City: A Dame to Kill For tanked this weekend and is already being written off as one of the year’s big flops. I can neither help nor hinder it, but I would definitely recommend it to anyone who liked the first film — but caution reduced expectations.
Once again, the film is made up of a series of sometimes vaguely connected stories and characters — all taking place in the neo-noir world of Sin City (actually Basin City). Here, however, time frames don’t line up between stories, which is a little disorienting. As a result, we get a movie that’s a sequel to the first one, but with a large stretch of prequel in the middle. That sounds more confusing than it is. Just realize that the segment with Josh Brolin replacing Clive Owen as Dwight is apparently supposed to be happening before Dwight has the plastic surgery that turns him into Clive Owen. Get it? Good. It isn’t perhaps absolutely essential to know, but it smooths over the change of actors. That story, which is built around Dwight (with his Philip Marlowe-like narration) and Eva Green as the ultimate femme fatale, Ava, may not be the best in the film, but it’s easily the most highly-publicized, thanks to quantities of naked Eva Green. (All well and good, but anyone who saw The Dreamers back in 2004 has already seen all the naked Eva Green there is to see — and more explicitly.)
The film opens with Marv (Mickey Rourke) — the hulking, heavily medicated mental case who enjoys beating people up and worse — surveying the damage he’s apparently inflicted on a number of hapless victims and trying to remember what happened. Not far away, Nancy (Jessica Alba) is still plying her trade as a stripper in a sleazy club. (Is there any other kind in Sin City?) Still grieving over the death of John Hartigan (Bruce Willis, appearing as a ghost), Nancy has also taken to drink and plotting to get revenge on Senator Roark (Powers Boothe), who — mostly because it suits the plot — plays high-stakes poker in a back room at the same club. At the same time, a young gambler, Johnny (Joseph-Gordon Levitt), is out to take Roark at the card table — for reasons that go beyond financial gain. Between part one of this story and its climax, we get Dwight’s tale. The only character who moves freely from story to story is Marv, who fancies himself Nancy’s protector; he’s more than ready to join Dwight for a spot of mayhem.
Stylistically, the new film could scarcely be better. There’s not a moment that isn’t visually exciting. Equally important, the action scenes are brilliantly achieved in a striking emulation of comic book panels. And then there’s the 3-D. While the 3-D is incredible — and likely to be in short supply by Friday, given the opening weekend box office — I’m not entirely sure that it’s in the film’s best interest. It may be just too much. It frankly had worn me out by not much past the halfway point, and I suspect I might have liked it more in plain old 2-D. But either way, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For is a bloody good, politically incorrect, over-the-top time at the movies. It goes on a little too long — and it doesn’t help that Nancy’s story, which is positioned late in the proceedings, is the least compelling thing in the movie — but it’s still something to see. Rated R for strong brutal stylized violence throughout, sexual content, nudity and brief drug use.
I have been eagerly awaiting your review of this movie. I’m saddened at how violently this film has been rejected since I was looking forward to it for the past 9 years (I saw the original three times at the cinema). The weird part of your comment on it being too long is that to me it was actually too short, especially the Dame storyline. There were several bits from the book eliminated here and I have no idea why since it would have improved the film. I wonder if there will be a director’s cut with more stuff added? I guess they didn’t want the main storyline being way longer than the other stories.
Still, the film has some real merit. It would probably play better in 2D as you noted, but there weren’t any 2D showings in my area at a reasonable time! I wonder if a lack of 2D showings has been a culprit in the low box office? I had a headache after it was over from the film and glasses. This movie will play better at home on a blu ray director’s cut. But with Eva Green as a smoking femme fatale and Powers Boothe giving perhaps his best film performance, this film has a level of villainy that is hard to top. I might be in the minority here but I might prefer the villains of this film to the original. They are far more realistic. There aren’t many wacko cannibal karate masters like Elijah Wood or bizarre yellow pedophiles, but femme fatales and crooked Senators? Oh yeah.
That said, the elephant in the room to this movie is something I practically have a crusade against, namely the concept of The Stripper Who Never Strips. I’ve hated this crap for years in modern films, but here it is by far the worst example. All through this movie we see Eva Green (who isn’t a stripper in this) nude in several scenes, yet Jessica Alba is in fact a stripper but never strips a single bit. This wouldn’t be so bad if this was like the first movie, where she was briefly seen on stage and mostly an innocent type of character. But here she’s a grizzled stripper, and there are several dance routines in the film….where she never strips. The fact that there were so many non stripping routines actually took me out of the movie after a point. Who would give this chick any money? If Alba is THAT opposed to being nude in a film, don’t take a role as a stripper.
I do suspect that the over-reliance on 3D showings had a negative impact. The one theater that I follow always sells far more 2D than 3D.
When I say the film is too long, I’m referring only to the film. I’m not factoring in things that have been omitted from the source material, which I’ve never read and probably never will. Based on what the film does contain, I found it dragged toward the end.
It’s a personal thing, I guess, but I prefer the weirder villains of the first film. As for the stripper thing, I see what you’re getting at it, but I can’t say it bothered me. I always figure Ms. Alba is lucky to get through a movie without falling over the furniture. If she doesn’t want to strip, I’m not that bothered by it. Chances are they felt they were stuck with her because she was in the first one.
I do get what you mean. It went into that awkward run time where it was either too short or not long enough. Mort and Bob had way more to do in the book to get you to care about them, whereas here their fate is kind of a punchline. Jeremy Piven fit the Bob role better than Madsen did in the first film, whereas Madsen fit that role better than Piven would have in that film (if that makes sense).
Here’s where the Alba not stripping thing is frustrating. The entire premise of her story arc is that she’s going nuts, getting drunk, smashing mirrors, etc. until she finally gets ready to kill Roarke. The script calls for her to do raunchier stripteases as she goes off the deep end (Marv walks out in disgust, after all) but without her getting naked the scene has zero impact.
Anyway I am baffled that the film was this much of a flop, but I think it will definitely find a cult audience on DVD.
One would think that Ken didn’t appreciate Ms Alba’s talents. Either of them.
I will merely say that these movies are her finest moments. Thing is, I’ve seen naked women before — sometimes in real life even.
Alba was pretty good in The Killer Inside Me.
Why is the comment balloon talking to me? G’Day mate? The Cat’s meow? Who thinks of these things??
Nauseating, isn’t it?