Review of Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014) by Allan C — 16 Dec 2016

I remember this film being critically panned when it came out, so I never bothered to watch it until it showed up on Netflix, but I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. Like the first film, this one features several overlapping stories based upon Frank MIller's stylized comic books.

However, this film features a couple original stories that were written for this film and I think that's where the film falls down. The two stories based upon the graphic novels, as was the first film, slavishly recreated the images and dialogue from the source material and the film is much stronger in those segments for it, whereas compared to the new original stories, which felt much looser and frankly a bit sloppy.

They still have all the same stark black and white contrasts with spaced of color, but are just not up to stuff. In one of the two new sequences Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays the illegitimate son of powerful senator Powers Booth.

They are both strong actors who play well off of each other, but the story really didn't have the same type of strong story arc as the others. The other new segment involves Nancy, Jessica Alba, exacting her revenge on Powers Booth for the what he did in the first film.

That segment ends the film and it's sad because it's a pretty dull story that's essentially the third act to a story we never saw act one or two of. However, the longest segment is A Dame to Kills for and that segment soars high above the rest of this film.

It's a classic femme fetal story with Eva Green manipulating every man who comes into her periphery. She's now marries to a rich and powerful man, but then seeks out an old flame with a violent past, an excellent Josh Brolin, to help rescue her from her current situation.

Eval Green is amazing and manages to achieve Barbara Stanwick and Jane Greer levels of femme fetal greatness, where you really want to believe her but just know that she's lying to you and telling you what you want to hear she can get what she wants.

This segemnt was so faithful to the source material in it's look that I even questioned myself at times as to whether I'd actually seen this movie before (I hadn't, but I had ready that comic before and that's what I was remembering).

Co-directors Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez do get kudos for a terrific stylized noir look, but this stylized look is not as fresh as it was a few years ago and when you saddle that with a couple stories that aren't as strong, you get an overall weaker film.

Still, it's a cat to die for that also includes Mickey Rourke, Rosario Dawson, Bruce Willis, Dennis Haysbert, Ray Liotta, Christoper Meloni, Jeremy Piven, Christopher Lloyd, Jamie King, Juno Temple, Stacy Keach, Lady Gaga, and Alexa Vega.

You also get the cool one man show that always fascinates me about Robert Rodriguez, again not only directing the film but also doing the music, cinematography, editing, and producing of the film. This entry is a mixed bag, but if you were to only watch the Eva Green segment, you'd think this was a much stronger film.