Think the last time I did a film review was X men days of future past, so it has been quite a while. I thought I'd review the first Sin City because even though the second one has just been released I am a bit busy with a new job so I won't be able to see it for a few days. Since this was released in 2005 I will talk about spoiler scenes as much a I want because anyone reading this has bound to have seen it by now, so you HAVE BEEN WARNED.
Sin City is adapted from Franks Millers graphic novel series of the same name and I have got all of the books and it is my favourite graphic novels. Besides from Frank Miller this film is also directed by Robert Rodriguez and with Quentin Tarantino as a special guest director. Now have been a massive fan of Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino for many years with some of my favourite of their films being Kill Bill and Desperado. These two know how to make a really damn good watch; they don't shy away from including a lot of violence but even scenes were its just talking between characters can be really gripping
The story of Sin City is split in to four stories, each one separate from the other but characters do cross over between the four.
The Customer is always right: Staring Josh Hartnett as The Salesman/Colonel and Marley Shelton as The Customer. This is segment is only five minutes and serves as the into to the film.
That Yellow Bastard: Staring Bruce Willis as John Hartigan; an honest, aging cop on the verge of retirement who wants to put away Roark Junior (Nick Stahl), a serial child rapist and killer, for good. Junior however is the son of the powerful Senator Roark and the Roark family basically rules Basin City. However when Junior kidnaps his latest victim, Nancy Callanhan (Makenize Vega/Jessica Alba), Hartigan stops at nothing to put a stop to Junior in a story that spans right years.
The Hard Goodbye: After a one night stand, street smart thug Marv (Mickey Rourke) awakens to find Goldie (Jamie King) dead besides him. Because she is the only women to ever show him kindness Marv makes it his mission to hunt down those responsible but soon finds out he may have bitten off more than he can chew when all of Basin City is against him.
The Big Fat Kill: When his girlfriend Shelly (Brittany Murphy) is suffering at the hands of her abusive ex Jackie Boy (Benicio Tel Toro), Dwight decides to step in. However Jackie Boy soon makes the mistake of entering Old Town; a section of Basin City controlled by the prostitutes who work there and who cannot tolerate two things; to those who don't play by their rules and cops. Dwight teams up with his old friends in Old Town to put a stop to Jackie boy but he just can't shake the feeling that something is awfully wrong.........
What I really liked about Sin City when I first watched it was how faithful it is to the original material, it is probably the best adaption of a graphic novel to the big screen. It even perfectly copies moments of the from the graphic novel in the film e.g. Marv swimming through the sewer, Lucille (Carla Gugino) reaching for her gun, Dwight jumping through the window etc. It is not so much that I am watching a film, more so that I am watching a motion comic.
All this is helped of course by the heavy film noir style which was what the graphic novel novels was heavily influenced by in the first place. This means the use of colours such as the whole film done in black and white with the exception of important colours like blood, Kevin's (Elijah Wood) glasses and the Yellow Bastard's skin to name a few, it also has stark, black backgrounds, heavily contrast white. Also it barely changes any of the words used from the graphic novel such as its sometimes strange metaphors and they keep all the character narration as well. All this gives the film high marks in my book because it is like I am watching the graphic novel down shot for shot and I always think it is a let down in most adaptions when they change to much for film (I really liked Watchmen for example but I didn't like that the ending was so different, may do review on this)
We also have some great casting choices for all of the roles here, with the stand out being Mickey Rourke as Marv. He was the perfect choice here, they did a lot of makeup on him so he really looked like Marv, and his voice was great for the narration as well, he was also really imposing/menacing when he wanted to be but still be a likeable character. It would take me long to go over the others so a top three other stand outs for where Elijah Wood as Kevin and Benicio Tel Toro as Jackie Boy (Especially Benicio Tel Toro, he kills it as Jackie Boy!) and also Nick Stahl as Junior. The rest where all great, even minor characters and ones he don't have much screen time as the other; would have liked to have seen more of Rutger Hauer and Powers Boothe.
However two that I have to mention, and not in a good way, are Bruce Willis as John Hartigan and Jessica Alba as Nancy Callanhan. First off I really liked Bruce Willis, I am glad he is Hartigan but I wished they gave him some make up to make him look more like a sixty year old (sixty eight after time skip!), he was a great choice but they made Mickey Rourke and Benicio Tel Toro look more like their characters. As for Jessica Alba I think she was a real miss cast in this because, aside from not looking much like Nancy from the graphic novel, she wasn't sexy enough for the role in my opinion. It annoyed me that in they made the Kadie's strip club seem PG - 13 because Nancy wasn't topless in any of it (she is in the graphic novel). We have some great women roles in this film e.g. Devon Aoki as Miho, Rosario Dawson as Gail and Carla Gugino as Lucille, especially Carla Gugino because she wasn't afraid to have that great nude shot where she grabs for the revolver. All in all just think Jessica Alba could have been more committed as a stripper and her overall acting as Nanacy could have been better. (I hear she is better in Sin City 2 though)
This film is also a great and fun watch because, thanks to its directors, it doesn't hold back on any of the violence. This isn't a film for the younger audience because we have got limbs flying about all over the place her lol, it is even interesting that they have kept most of the blood white like in the graphic novel also. Quentin Tarantino is also has credit for one of my favourite scenes in the film which was Dwight and the almost decapitated body of Jackie Boy having the conversation in the car. It was really smart that whenever Jackie lifted his head his voice gets higher because of the damaged vocal cords, they don't do that in the graphic novel but it was really cool to see. Shame they cut out a lot of the dialogue between them.
Overall this is the best is one of my favourite films of all time and the best graphic novel adaption ever. It does a perfect job of bring this gritty, dangerous , bleak fictional city to life for the big screen. I can't really choose a favourite segment because the are all just so damn good.
SCORE: 9/10
Can't wait for Sin City 2!
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