Sin City

Sin City is a movie I never understood the hype over. I'm not a comic book reader so I never read the comic that it was based off of. On top of that, in 2005 when this movie came out, the story was pretty ambiguous and it was pretty hard to tell what this movie was even about. All I knew was it had a particular style and it was based off of a comic book that I didn't read.

And now its on Netflix and its the kind of movie that it wasn't going to go too long without being watched, especially with all the popularity this movie has accrued over the years.

And watching it over 10 years later for the first time, I can say, while I don't necessarily agree with the hype, I get it.

Sin City is a collection of stories set in the city of Basin City (but they cross out the BA and you get Sin so it makes sense).

In reality, the stories don't exactly connect. One is a story of a cop being forced into retirement (played by Bruce Willis) as he tracks down a child molester who has haunted his career. Another story is Mickey Rourke tracking down the creepy Elijah Wood who killed his hooker girlfriend. And another story is Clive Owen taking on the ex-boyfriend (played by Benicio Del Toro) of his current girlfriend (played by Brittany Murphy) with a band of gun wielding hookers.

The stories are clever in that they all take place in the same world and they have similar characters making cameos in each story and they bleed over. But none of the characters interact personally with the other ones and their connections are really only coincidental.

In this way, there's not one main character and it makes for a really interesting ensemble cast performance.

Unfortunately, this makes it difficult for me to really comment on an over arching story because the movie is in essence 4 short stories. While there are the connections and some of the stories are directly impacted by others, the character of focus often shifts just before you really get to delve into the character you were just focusing on.

The being said, the movie does a pretty good job at making you at least a little sympathetic towards each main character because while they may not be good people, they are definitely the better alternative to the dark and pure evil that they're fighting against.

Sin City is in essence a noir. Where the characters are morally ambiguous, there's a heavy contrast in dark and light, and the stories are not necessarily your typical happy endings.

Noir in itself is a style that you either like or you don't like. And honestly, you're either going to really like Sin City, you're not gonna like it too much. Or you can be like me where you understand the appeal, you just know that its not quite your style.

One thing that must be said about this movie is that it is an absolutely gorgeously shot movie.

I don't usually talk about cinematography on this blog because while I can speak to it, I don't claim to be an expert and I don't necessarily find it as interesting as the story.

However, not only would you have to be dumb to realize the significance and originality of the way this movie is shot, I realized that this movie is in essence the perfect comic book movie.

I don't mean that in its the best movie based off of a comic book, I mean this is the best movie that is a comic book movie. The shots of this movie are ripped right off the pages of a Frank Miller edition of Sin City comic book. Like I said, I don't read comic books but I've at least looked at one and I recognize the imagery, the use of color, and the way shots are lined up that make it so the movie is really just missing speech bubbles and its a moving comic book.

Its hard to show exactly what I mean with just pictures I find on Google Images so it might be something you just need to go and take a look for yourself on, but trust me, its something worth seeing because it is such a distinct style.

Now, like the film itself, you're either going to love it or you're going to hate it. Because not only is the cinematography comic book like, so is the acting.

In fact it kind of took me out of it in the beginning because its really this wooden acting as if someone is trying to read a comic book, its hard to translate that comic book dialogue to actual movie dialogue and not have a little bit of time to be eased into it.

The being said, the thing you have to appreciate about this movie is that everyone involved is committed to the style and nobody is phoning it in.

There may not be any Oscar worthy performances in here but everyone is committed to a certain style and once you realize what that style is, it doesn't break at all.

I mean I have a theory that the more hair Bruce Willis has the less likely he is to phone in a performance and that doesn't happen here. Everyone is committed and everyone is in on the joke or the style.

The fun part about this movie is that there is a little bit of everything for people who like a certain style. If you like Noir, there's a piece of that in Sin City. If you like comic books, you'll definitely get that feeling in this movie. If you like cinematography in movies, you're going to eat this up. But if you don't like any of those things or don't find interest in it, you might want to skip Sin City. On top of all of that, this is a gruesome movie. They get away with it because the blood is not red and its actually done in a cool stylized way, but that does not take away from the fact that this movie is dark as hell and not for the faint of heart.

What's also interesting is that this is not a conventional film.

From the subject matter, to the material its based on, to the cinematography, to the story structure, to the gruesome nature of the film, this is a movie that stands outside all conventions.

If you're a film fan, its definitely a film worth checking out just for the study, but if you're just looking for a straight forward film to enjoy, Sin City might not be the right film for you.

Again, do I love Sin City? No. But I do recognize the merits it has and it is entertaining to watch just for those observations.

But what do you think? Have you seen Sin City? Comment and Discuss below and tell me what you thought of it. You can also send me your thoughts via Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as requests for movies I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter you can also get live tweets of films I'm watching at home as well as updates on future movie news and reviews.

I'll leave you with this. So they made a sequel to this movie 10 years later... oddly enough. Here's the trailer. Enjoy!