Sin City DVD Review

"SIN CITY" reviews

DVD

SIN CITY

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2005-10-27 22:16:49

Provider

DVD Review

Robert Rodriguez's Sin City is a visually thrilling and captivating piece of cinema. The director has not only bought Frank Miller's cult comic book stories to life - assisted by Miller in co-director's role - but the computer generated backgrounds and set pieces have set a new benchmark against which all future movies of its ilk will be measured.

And the characters who inhabit Sin City are incredible too. A melange of Raymond Chandler noir, ultra trashy pulp fiction and monochromatic futurism, these shadowy figures cling to the dark, nefarious underworld. All the men are outsiders, misfits: crooks looking for redemption or cops on the make, or better still crooked cops on the make looking for redemption. Likewise the women are all fallen vamps: prostitutes, over-sexed young girls or quick-witted temptresses.

Here's the rub. When Rodriguez and Miller were assembling this motley bunch they perhaps deprived the movie of a soul (intentionally?). The characters from the separate stories interact with panache, but beyond the with the vicarious kicks of the violence, empathy is long-forgotten.

Nevertheless, Mickey Rourke is fantastic as the sadistic Marv, Jessica Alba is gorgeous as the sex kitten Nancy Callahan and Clive Owen smoulders as the honour bound Dwight. Add in top drawer performances by Bruce Willis, Elijah Wood, Josh Hartnett, Benecio Del Toro and Rosario Dawson and an excellent directorial cameo from Quentin Tarantino and you know you just have to check it out.

Also contains Behind The Scenes Of Sin City featurette.