Sin City: DVD Release

Sin City may be the most stylistic film I've ever seen. Quentin Tarantino, who is a "guest director" on this film, looks like a low-key realist next to Sin City.

How to explain it? Sin City is based on a comic book (which I am unfamiliar with), and strives to look like a comic book. It is shot largely in black and white, except for a few colors that show up in each scene--the red of a woman's lips, green in the eyes, or a blue car. The visuals are truly fascinating.

As much as the visuals may have been used to connect the film to comic books, I believe softening the violence could have also been a goal. In this aspect, I think the graphics don't fare so well. The movie is extremely violent, though it seems to be trying to funny a lot of the time. I found it a bit disconcerting to have such graphic violence mixed with humor in the context of some pretty disturbing events in the plot. I may be picky, but I'll warn you that the comic book style does not keep some of the gore--mutilations, decapitations, castrations--from seeing pretty grotesque, even a little nauseating.

But what is it about? The movie is comprised of a few very loosely interlocking stories taking place in Sin City, with a cast too numerous for me to list to you. As a general rule, the narrators are grizzled tough guys with their own code of honor. Here, I am bothered a bit. I know the stories come straight from the comics, but I can still be insulted by the plot, right? Where the men are tough vigilantes and psychotic villains, the women are all half-naked damsels in distress. Well, let me alter that. The women are all half-naked damsels in distress, with the exception of a pack of half-naked murderous prostitutes. I'm just saying.

I was a hard sell on this movie. The first fifteen minutes made me scoff, with the stiff comic book dialogue seeming to be recited as meaninglessly as Leonardo DiCaprio's lines in Romeo+Juliet. But it grew on me. I got used to the speech patterns and didn't pay as much attention to the stilted dialogue, and frankly, I can't get over how awesome this movie looks. If you can take the violence, I think you can appreciate that it's visually a masterpiece. The stories are still borderline campy, but dang it, I'm a sucker for an interesting-looking film.

Bottom Line: Fascinating watch, but not for the weak of stomach or lovers of realism.