Sin City

[Vice]

Yesterday I decided to see a movie I knew next to nothing about, so I and my wife went to see Sin City. I figured that since it was based on a comic book (that was all I knew about it), I would see superheroes and the classic battle between good and evil.

Boy, was I wrong.

Lots of violence -- probably even more so than Kill Bill. Same director as Kill Bill, so I should have expected as much. Lots of corruption. Oddly enough, I felt "dirty" (if you can figure that out) after the movie from all the corruption I saw. I felt compelled to "cleanse my palatte" afterward by watching something a little cleaner, so I picked up School of Rock.

Some of the production was visually interesting, kind of like computer generated backgrounds (a la Sky Captain).

I think the title "Sin City" comes from the city in which it is set -- "Basin City." Over the timeline of the movie, the letters "B" and "A" on a city limit sign seemed to decay. An interesting directorial reflection on a city that seemed to go from bad to worse as seen through the eyes of a few characters in the movie.

I don't think I'd recommend this for anyone to see. I should have satisfied my curiosity by waiting for the DVD.

 

[destiny]

I was just reading about it this morning, it sounds like a piece of Hollywood garbage.

 

[Quath]

I saw it Saturday and I thought it was great. I love the use of color in this film noir.

It is basically three stories full of tough as nails thugs, corrupt and honest cops, ladies in distress and lethal prostitutes. The stories are a mixture of street justice and finding integrity however you can.

If you like Quentin Tarantino's other movies (he is only a co-director), you should like this one. Right now, I consider it one of my favorites, with Pulp Fiction up there as well.

Quath

 

[guibox]

If you like Quentin Tarantino's other movies (he is only a co-director), you should like this one. Right now, I consider it one of my favorites, with Pulp Fiction up there as well.

Quath

Yeah, old QT puts out some trashy stuff. I felt dirty the first time I saw all of his movies (Particularly True Romance and Natural Born Killers, both of which he had a hand in creating screenplay). Reservoir Dogs has the most 'F' words I've ever heard in a 2 hour movie (25 alone are before the credits even role, though the beginning is quite humorous).

I haven't seen the Kill Bills yet.

 

[cubedbee]

Yeah, I agree with you Quath. The cinemetography was simply awesome. The whole thing was shot on blue screen like Sky Captain, and the animation they did made it look exactly like a 2D drawn comic come to life in 3D. I'm always a fan of black and white, and the sparse use of vibrant colors was just phenomonal.

It's also extremely violent, just like a QT movie (QT only directed one scene, the one where the corpse is talking to Clive Owen in the car). The voilence isn't really gory, since most of the blood and wounds are shown in black and white, but it is pervasive in world of this movie and never relents. Despite the very violent and sinful nature of this fictional world, the movie is very interesting in that it follows three flawed humans who are trying to do good, to find redemption, in the face of the moral pit they live in.

 

[Vice]

Despite the very violent and sinful nature of this fictional world, the movie is very interesting in that it follows three flawed humans who are trying to do good, to find redemption, in the face of the moral pit they live in.

I dunno.....

It's kind of weird when each of those humans who're trying to do good end up killing a bunch of people -- intentionally, I might add -- to do what they perceive to be good.

I'd just call it a story about people trying to "execute" street justice.

 

[Quath]

Some spoilers..............


I think the point is they try. The thug on a killing rampage is trying to be careful not to kill cops or innocents. He talks about how great hitmen are because you don't feel bad what you do to them. So this flawed person is tryng to do right, even to the point of killing a lot of people to avenge a dead woman.

It is a movie about the mixture of street justice and legitimate justice. But I think the people are trying to do what they think is right.

This is the essense of every comic book. I think every superhero is a vigilante (which makes them criminals). So in a sense, if you are rooting for Batman or the X-Men, you are supporting street justice.

Quath

 

[KnarfKS]

The movie did look very good. I'm not sheltered, and I usually don't mind violence, but there were half a dozen incidents of people losing testicles alone. Is that really necessary? I also say that no woman on earth will like this movie. Every woman in it is a prostitute or bar maid. I heard that it was very true to the comic book, but now I honestly don't know why they made it. It was just too over the top. The comic book cheeziness I can deal with, but not the excessive sex and violence, which of course both to this extreme were unnecessary.

 

[Quath]

My wife loved it. She did make a comment that she wished there had been more male nudity. I think she did like the assassin like prostitute. She basically kept saving the main guy in that story.

It is also part of the film noir side of it. It reminds me of Bladerunner in which Harrison Ford only kills the females replicants and has to be saved by a woman (whom he later pushes around aggressively) and by compassion of another.

Plus it is Sin City. I would expect for everyone to be sinning or dealing with sin.

If you look at the Yahoo user ratings, you basically see a lot of A's and F's given by the user reviews. It basically one of them movies you love or hate with indifference being kind of uncommon.

I looked at one of the user reviews and cracked up at one of the comments: I for one am happy to see an action movie that doesn't water itself down with pointless romance just to please the women in the crowd. When is the last time a chick flick shot someone in the face to appease me who gets dragged there?

Quath