Review of Sin City (2005) by Nathant. — 18 Sep 2006

Easily the sickest mainstream movie of 2005 was "Sin City." This is a duller than dull, grosser than gross adaptation of Frank Miller's adored graphic novels. But the movie, which features an all-star cast (Bruce Willis, Michael Madsen, Mickey Rourke, Jessica Alba, Elijah Wood, and on and on), is so sleazy and frankly boring that by the end of its two hours of screen time I feel exhausted and disgusted.

Not since "Batman Returns" has a director been so fixated on creating moods and emulating creepy noir settings at the expense of storytelling that is coherent and enthralling. Director Robert Rodriguez (working with Quentin Tarantino) settles for misogynistic material that is amazing for the eyes to behold.

But since when has that been enough? Working with Tarantino is a major tip-off to this movies abundance of problems. I loved "Kill Bill 2", thought it was among the best films of 2004. But there is a joy to the "Kill Bill" movies; a zeal for exhilarating movie making that calls to mind the joyful destruction of "Goodfellas" and those movies actually had strongly feminine proclivities.

There is no joy, no fun, and no pleasure in "Sin City" (except for people who dig seeing the 50th head chopped off or women slapped around). Even if you can look past that there still isn't much to marvel at.

Worse than the triumph of style over substance, "Sin City" champions bad attitude over ideas.