Film: Sin City

Directed by: Robert Rodriguez, Frank Miller, and special guest director Quentin Tarantino

Year: 2006

Written by: Frank Miller

Starring: Bruce Willis, Mickey Rourke, Clive Owen, Jessica Alba, Carla Gugino, Benicio Del Toro, Rutger Hauer

Reviewed by: J.J.

Based on the comic by the same name by Frank Miller, Robert Rodriguez creates a visually stunning film noirish world. Rodriguez picks four main stories and ties them together in one movie. I'll review each story separately.

There's one lesser story that only takes a few minutes that I'll skip over. It was a short shoot and only makes sense when you get to the end.

The first story features Bruce Willis as the good cop, one who can't be bought and does the right thing, even when the other cops are on the take and pressure him into giving in. This story is short and ends upruptly, but you can tell more is coming later. I won't rate it yet, because it's unfinished.

The second story has Mickey Rourke as Marv. He's a guy with a hideous face and can take blows that would kill a dozen men, a guy who belonged more on the battlefields on medieval Europe than in civilization. He has to take medication because of his violent tendencies.

He wakes to find Goldie, a hooker, and the only girl who has ever been nice to him, dead.

So he makes a quick pit stop to his parole officer/psychiatrist (played by the drop dead gorgeous Carla Gugino), picks up his medication, and hits the road, trying to find out who killed her.

This is a classic film noir piece that rates right up there with some of the best of them. I loved way Rourke played Marv. He epitomized cool in this one.

The next story features Clive Owen as Dwight. Benetio Del Toro plays the mean boyfriend with Dwight the hero. Despite a few funny gags, this is the weakest of the stories. I couldn't put my finger on whom to blame. Was it the directing or Clive Owen, but I just found it hard to root for Dwight. He didn't seem right in this role. But what really made this one bad was Alexis Bledel, playing Becky. Becky had to be the most unbelievable prostitute in film I've ever seen. Whomever did the casting must have been asleep that day. I've seen community college actresses that were more believable than Bledel.

The last story is the completion of Bruce Willis as Detective Hartigan. Hartigan's now in jail for saving a twelve-year-old girl from a child molester, a child molester who happened to be the son of a Senator, the guy who pulls the strings in Sin City. That's why Hartigan got in trouble.

He endures year after year in jail in hopes that the bad guys will never find out what happened to the twelve-year-old girl he saved. His life for hers.

After eight years he gets released and immediately tries to rescue her from danger, for the bad guys found out about her whereabouts.

This story redeemed the last one and is almost as good as Marv. Willis is casted perfectly for this role, the aging cop with a chivalric heart.

All in all, a good flick. The visual style is unique, something ahead of its time. Robert Rodriguez loves to be on the cutting edge of movie technology, so I have to respect him for that. He definitely can stretch a dollar three times better than George Lucas, but unlike Lucas, Rodriguez can actually direct. Rodriguez also knows cool. Rourke and Willis are both cool. Antonio Banderas in Desperado was cool. The heroes in From Dusk 'Til Dawn were cool.

Overall - 7 J's out of 10. Could have been better, but a solid attempt at doing something that needs to be done. If they cut out the one bad story and expanded the others, I would have rated this movie higher.

Rodriguez knows how to shake up Hollywood. Expect copy catters. And Frank Miller definitely has a unique style. Frank Miller looked over Rodriguez's shoulder and made sure the movie was just like his artistic vision. Rodriguez didn't let him down.

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