Even though I'm not a big fan of the comic book/graphic novel genre, or movies
made from them, I loved the original "Sin City." It look the look and feel of
Frank Miller's dark, twisted world and rendered it onscreen faithfully. "Sin
City: A Dame to Kill For" continues the tradition. It is rated So Not For Buck,
being full of even more sex and violence than its predecessor. It provides four
prequels to the events portrayed in the original movie, and one sequel.
"Just Another Saturday Night" features Mickey Rourke reprising his role as
Marv, trying to figure out how what started as just another Saturday night
watching Nancy Callahan (Jessica Alba) dance ended up with him standing over a
wreckage of cars and bodies, essentially the only one left standing. It's not
the best story in the bunch, but it sets the scene and provides a great lead-in
to the title sequences, which are as stunning as they were last time.
"The Long Bad Night" is in two parts, and features Joseph Gordon Levitt as a
cocky young gambler trying to teach evil senator Roarke (played again by Powers
Booth) a lesson. He wins the poker game but gets the crap beaten out of him by
Roarke. He'll have another shot at Roarke in part two, but this part is really
here to show us Nancy dancing again, this time building up to trying to shoot
Roarke herself for what he did to Hartigan (Bruce Willis) in the previous
movie. She doesn't go through with it, but we're startin' to get the idea --
this whole movie is really about Nancy, and what she's building up to.
"A Dame to Kill For" gives us a little back story on Dwight McCarthy (played in
the original by Clive Owen but here by Josh Brolin) and how he got to know Gail
(Rosario Dawson) and Miho (played this time by Jamie Chung) and the girls who
run Old Town. This is the most classic film noir segment in the movie, and it's
stunning visually, all black and white with splashes of red where the blood is
(and a flash of red-haired wig on Nancy, dancing again). And they couldn't have
picked a more film noir woman for Dwight to be in love with. Eva Green was
*born* to be a film noir femme fatale, and she's *great* as Ava. She's also
naked a lot, which makes this movie more than worth its price of admission in
itself.
And yet, after the concluding segment of "The Long Bad Night," it's not Eva
Green who sticks with me as the best actress in the film. That would have to be
Jessica Alba, in "Nancy's Last Dance." She takes the character of Nancy
Callahan that she created so carefully in the first movie and then shows what
she's like four years later. Bitter, still obsessed with Roarke for what he did
to Hartigan, now angry with herself because she couldn't even shoot him when
she had a chance, it all boils over and she performs one last dance and then
teams up with Marv for one of those revenge-fests that both Robert Rodriguez
and Frank Miller are famous for. Alba is tremendous in this movie, and
especially in this segment. Eva Green may be the perfect femme fatale, but it's
Jessica Alba who gets to show off the acting chops she's gained since that
first film and become the titular dame to kill for.
If you didn't like the original movie you probably won't like this one. But I
thought it was pretty cool, especially for a home movie.
That's literally what it is -- Robert Rodriguez made this entire film at his
home studio. The actors flew into Austin, drove out to his house, and did all
their acting in front of green screens. As usual, Rodriguez himself did all
cinematography and editing, and he wrote most of the music. CGI artists created
the virtual "sets" of Sin City. Altogether it works to create a pretty unique
film experience.
SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR Comic-Con Red Band Trailer
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