16/05/07 : Sin City

Sin City, based on Frank Miller's novels, is quite a dark and sinister film, depicted in a stylish crime genre comic book fashion. The look of the film adds well to it's tales of urban, pulp fiction styled violence and depravity. Miller directs the film (mostly in black and white, with generous spatterings of red rouge and occasional yellow stinkiness) along with Robert Rodriguez and the noir obsessed Quentin Tarantino.

It is sectioned off into three stories which host a number of gnarly characters and scenarios all set in Basin City, a sort of x rated, down low and dirty Gotham City, full of villains, prostitutes, crooked cops and murderers mostly hell bent on vengeance or redemption of some sort.

First off, Bruce Willis plays a straight laced cop who has one more assignment to solve before retiring as he attempts to rescue a young girl from an evil child molester. Then we encounter Marv, played by Mickey Rourke, who is possibly the hardest, most grizzly looking dude the silver screen has ever seen. Marv goes on the rampage when he finds out his favourite hooker Goldie has been murdered right under his nose. Marv, ever the true romantic, (he hates when guys mess with broads) encounters the sadistic and psychotic natured Kevin, (played by Elijah Wood) who dismembers his victims, has a little brain on toast and feeds the remains to his dog, which is ironically how he meets his own timely death, giving a new meaning to the saying "bite the hand that feeds you".

The last story has Dwight, played by Clive Owen, as a private investigator who gets tangled up with the hard nosed, gun toting prostitutes in the old town and a bent and nasty cop who loses his head (literally) in yet more all out gruesomeness. All three stories come heavily doused in ultra violence and menace with a shadowey undertone that will leave you slightly disturbed but equally engrossed.

Reviewed by Bombardier Burbot