By Jason Haskins
In 2005, the big screen adaptation of Frank Miller's awesome 90s comic series Sin City hit theaters everywhere. Miller stepped in as director alongside Desperado's Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino (who shot one scene of the film). It was explosive--especially given that all of the books in the series were republished by Dark Horse and the event was very well received by audiences and fans. After re-watching it again I completely fell in love with not only the stories represented again, but how well done the film was shot overall.
The two-hour film forms a series of vignettes that collects three of the seven books of the Sin City series with a short story from the sixth book, Booze, Broads, & Bullets. The film usually stays on target, telling one story before moving on to the next. It begins with The Customer is Always Right, which sets the tremendous tone of the film with a romantic assassination before heading into the three other stories.
Bruce Willis stars as Hartigan in That Yellow Bastard where he's set up after he survives an attack by a corrupted politician's pedophilic son and must rot in prison not knowing if the girl he was protecting from him is safe or not. Jessica Alba plays Nancy, the girl who grew up into a woman, who reaches out to and falls in love with Hartigan. The yellow bastard is on their tail to exact revenge for having his weapons (i.e. penis) taken away. In the beginning we see the first chapter of the story, but the rest is saved for the film’s finish.
From the first book we start The Hard Goodbye, which stars a grizzly and lumbering Mickey Rourke as Marv--a man who has a beautiful night with a hooker only to wake up with her dead. He promises to find whoever killed her and make them feel like hell. This is a classic story and well represented here with Elijah Wood playing this creepy quiet guy (the antagonist, if you will).
The third story is from the third book, The Big Fat Kill. It stars Clive Owen (before he was famous) as Dwight McCarthy who's embroiled in a conflict between Benicio del Toro and the late Brittany Murphy, which leads him to chase Benicio and his gang to Old Town, which is where the hookers and women run everything. After a series of events things go grossly wrong and Dwight must figure things out before a large turf war is started between the police and the women of Old Town. This is the most action-packed chapter and a perfect translation of the source material.
The direction is simply flawless. Those who read the comic books will no doubt see whole shots orchestrated exactly like they were in the comic books. They did an extraordinary job making everything fit in line most likely because they used the comics as storyboards. What a way to make a comic movie! If that wasn't enough you get this crazy unorthodox filming method that has never been accomplished before.
Almost everything you see in the film was shot on green screen so that in post-production they could stylize everything they wanted from the abrupt changes in color (the film is mostly in converted black and white) to all of the crazy special effects you see. It's sort of like an animated film, but with actors. Not like, say, Richard Linklater's A Scanner Darkly, but something crazily different and pleasing to the eyes. It's exactly like Miller's later film, The Spirit, but much better.
Most of the performances are a really good match to the over-the-top pulpy crime narrative derived from the original novels, but some things don't translate as well as others, which makes some performances suffer from it (Brittany Murphy's role is a key example). However, the casting is right on. After re-reading all of the books and really examining the movie, these guys casted the perfect people for the roles who actually look like the people (Marv/Rourke=amazing) and who actually throw in a ton of enthusiasm to the work.
There aren't many things I dislike about this movie. I will say that because of how its conceptualized with the vignette approach it lags in the center right around the time that you're in the middle of The Big Fat Kill...but it picks itself back up again. I really dig the tone that's accomplished. Don't expect a superhero comic movie, but a huge emphasis on visuals that takes you on a ride through the whole movie. There's action and intrigue, but also a pulsing heart that most crime fans will really dig.
The edition of Sin City I own is the "Uncut. Extended. Unrated." edition and there's really no other way to watch this beast. It's a two-disc set that comes with the first graphic novel of the series, The Hard Goodbye (now I own two copies...), a recut and extended version that boasts twenty extra minutes on top of the theatrical version (also included here), and an all green-screen version (which is a trip to say the least).
Are we done there? Nope! Another cooking lesson from Rodriguez who makes late night tacos (yum yum), count ‘em--THREE commentaries by Miller, Tarantino, and Rodriquez, the extended long take shot by Tarantino of del Toro and Owen, and tons of featurettes from the costumes to the special effects to the adaptation and an interesting one on the props and what it took for Miller to help make the movie. This is such a great presentation of the film and a must if you're really interested.
There still hasn't been a sequel to this movie yet...and as the years pass and more Spy Kids movies are made by Robert Rodriguez I keep losing a little bit of hope. However, this movie is enough to tide me over for more years. It's such a treat to watch because it has a ton of the spunk that made the books so good. There's violence, coarse language, and a huge sheen of special effects wonder to it that will keep your eyes entertained as much as your mind. I seem to like this more every time I watch it and it pioneered the use of visual effects to incorporate the story more than just be flashy.
5 out of 5 stars
© Jason Haskins, 2011
In 2005, the big screen adaptation of Frank Miller's awesome 90s comic series Sin City hit theaters everywhere. Miller stepped in as director alongside Desperado's Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino (who shot one scene of the film). It was explosive--especially given that all of the books in the series were republished by Dark Horse and the event was very well received by audiences and fans. After re-watching it again I completely fell in love with not only the stories represented again, but how well done the film was shot overall.
The two-hour film forms a series of vignettes that collects three of the seven books of the Sin City series with a short story from the sixth book, Booze, Broads, & Bullets. The film usually stays on target, telling one story before moving on to the next. It begins with The Customer is Always Right, which sets the tremendous tone of the film with a romantic assassination before heading into the three other stories.
Bruce Willis stars as Hartigan in That Yellow Bastard where he's set up after he survives an attack by a corrupted politician's pedophilic son and must rot in prison not knowing if the girl he was protecting from him is safe or not. Jessica Alba plays Nancy, the girl who grew up into a woman, who reaches out to and falls in love with Hartigan. The yellow bastard is on their tail to exact revenge for having his weapons (i.e. penis) taken away. In the beginning we see the first chapter of the story, but the rest is saved for the film’s finish.
From the first book we start The Hard Goodbye, which stars a grizzly and lumbering Mickey Rourke as Marv--a man who has a beautiful night with a hooker only to wake up with her dead. He promises to find whoever killed her and make them feel like hell. This is a classic story and well represented here with Elijah Wood playing this creepy quiet guy (the antagonist, if you will).
The third story is from the third book, The Big Fat Kill. It stars Clive Owen (before he was famous) as Dwight McCarthy who's embroiled in a conflict between Benicio del Toro and the late Brittany Murphy, which leads him to chase Benicio and his gang to Old Town, which is where the hookers and women run everything. After a series of events things go grossly wrong and Dwight must figure things out before a large turf war is started between the police and the women of Old Town. This is the most action-packed chapter and a perfect translation of the source material.
The direction is simply flawless. Those who read the comic books will no doubt see whole shots orchestrated exactly like they were in the comic books. They did an extraordinary job making everything fit in line most likely because they used the comics as storyboards. What a way to make a comic movie! If that wasn't enough you get this crazy unorthodox filming method that has never been accomplished before.
Almost everything you see in the film was shot on green screen so that in post-production they could stylize everything they wanted from the abrupt changes in color (the film is mostly in converted black and white) to all of the crazy special effects you see. It's sort of like an animated film, but with actors. Not like, say, Richard Linklater's A Scanner Darkly, but something crazily different and pleasing to the eyes. It's exactly like Miller's later film, The Spirit, but much better.
Most of the performances are a really good match to the over-the-top pulpy crime narrative derived from the original novels, but some things don't translate as well as others, which makes some performances suffer from it (Brittany Murphy's role is a key example). However, the casting is right on. After re-reading all of the books and really examining the movie, these guys casted the perfect people for the roles who actually look like the people (Marv/Rourke=amazing) and who actually throw in a ton of enthusiasm to the work.
There aren't many things I dislike about this movie. I will say that because of how its conceptualized with the vignette approach it lags in the center right around the time that you're in the middle of The Big Fat Kill...but it picks itself back up again. I really dig the tone that's accomplished. Don't expect a superhero comic movie, but a huge emphasis on visuals that takes you on a ride through the whole movie. There's action and intrigue, but also a pulsing heart that most crime fans will really dig.
The edition of Sin City I own is the "Uncut. Extended. Unrated." edition and there's really no other way to watch this beast. It's a two-disc set that comes with the first graphic novel of the series, The Hard Goodbye (now I own two copies...), a recut and extended version that boasts twenty extra minutes on top of the theatrical version (also included here), and an all green-screen version (which is a trip to say the least).
Are we done there? Nope! Another cooking lesson from Rodriguez who makes late night tacos (yum yum), count ‘em--THREE commentaries by Miller, Tarantino, and Rodriquez, the extended long take shot by Tarantino of del Toro and Owen, and tons of featurettes from the costumes to the special effects to the adaptation and an interesting one on the props and what it took for Miller to help make the movie. This is such a great presentation of the film and a must if you're really interested.
There still hasn't been a sequel to this movie yet...and as the years pass and more Spy Kids movies are made by Robert Rodriguez I keep losing a little bit of hope. However, this movie is enough to tide me over for more years. It's such a treat to watch because it has a ton of the spunk that made the books so good. There's violence, coarse language, and a huge sheen of special effects wonder to it that will keep your eyes entertained as much as your mind. I seem to like this more every time I watch it and it pioneered the use of visual effects to incorporate the story more than just be flashy.
5 out of 5 stars
© Jason Haskins, 2011
Did you hear that Robert Rodriguez is finally getting ready to make the sequel?
ReplyDeleteAbout fucking time, don't ya think?