Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (18.)
Directed by Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller.
Starring Mickey Rourke, Eva Green, Josh Brolin, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Powers Boothe, Jennifer Alba and Bruce Willis. 102 mins.
2005’s Sin City was one of the finest films of that decade. Taken, almost photo copied, from the pages of Miller’s graphic novels, this twisted homage to 40/50s hard-boiled detective fiction and the film noir it inspired, was a mix of all that is best about comic book art and all that is worse in human nature. It was depraved, degenerate and exhilarating; as if instead of directing it himself Warren Beatty had handed Dick Tracy over to Roman Polanski. I wouldn’t say it was a guilty pleasure, but it gave you the uneasy feeling that it had taken a good long look at you, brushed aside your airs and graces and seen just how seedy you really were. You'd like to think you were a bit better than a film where every female was a sex object and the men were indestructible brutes, but you were wrong, dead wrong. It wasn’t pretty but, shot in monochrome black and white with splashes of colour, it sure was beautiful to look at.
And now, more of the same. This is both the sequel that can't go wrong, and the one that can't win. The same creative team with the same cast, tackling some of the stories they didn't have time for in the first and some more that have been written for the film: a certain level of satisfaction is guaranteed. It has though lost the element of surprise. The first got the drop on you, had you agog at the unprecedented, audacious wonder of it all. The second still works marvellously but it is going over old ground.
One of the great things about the first film was that it restored a bit of dignity to Mickey Rourke and that is always a good thing in my book. It is though semi-disappointing to see him and most of the original cast returning, especially as half of them were killed off in the first film. (Most of the stories here are prequels.) It emphasises that all the best stories were used up in the first movie. The fresh faces provide the best bits. Gordon-Levitt's cocky gambler is a light but welcome addition; the main meat though is the title story, a porno-thuggish Double Indemnity pastiche with Brolin as the lust-led chump and Eva Green providing a ferociously exaggerated Femme Fatale.
Directed by Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller.
Starring Mickey Rourke, Eva Green, Josh Brolin, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Powers Boothe, Jennifer Alba and Bruce Willis. 102 mins.
2005’s Sin City was one of the finest films of that decade. Taken, almost photo copied, from the pages of Miller’s graphic novels, this twisted homage to 40/50s hard-boiled detective fiction and the film noir it inspired, was a mix of all that is best about comic book art and all that is worse in human nature. It was depraved, degenerate and exhilarating; as if instead of directing it himself Warren Beatty had handed Dick Tracy over to Roman Polanski. I wouldn’t say it was a guilty pleasure, but it gave you the uneasy feeling that it had taken a good long look at you, brushed aside your airs and graces and seen just how seedy you really were. You'd like to think you were a bit better than a film where every female was a sex object and the men were indestructible brutes, but you were wrong, dead wrong. It wasn’t pretty but, shot in monochrome black and white with splashes of colour, it sure was beautiful to look at.
And now, more of the same. This is both the sequel that can't go wrong, and the one that can't win. The same creative team with the same cast, tackling some of the stories they didn't have time for in the first and some more that have been written for the film: a certain level of satisfaction is guaranteed. It has though lost the element of surprise. The first got the drop on you, had you agog at the unprecedented, audacious wonder of it all. The second still works marvellously but it is going over old ground.
One of the great things about the first film was that it restored a bit of dignity to Mickey Rourke and that is always a good thing in my book. It is though semi-disappointing to see him and most of the original cast returning, especially as half of them were killed off in the first film. (Most of the stories here are prequels.) It emphasises that all the best stories were used up in the first movie. The fresh faces provide the best bits. Gordon-Levitt's cocky gambler is a light but welcome addition; the main meat though is the title story, a porno-thuggish Double Indemnity pastiche with Brolin as the lust-led chump and Eva Green providing a ferociously exaggerated Femme Fatale.
