“SIN CITY” (2005)

Starring: Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis, Clive Owen, Elijah Wood, Rutger Hauer, Jessica Alba, Benicio Del Toro & Brittany Murphy
Written by Frank Miller
Directed by Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez
With special guest director Quentin Tarantino

Polly Staffle Rating: *

“Sin City” is probably the most disappointing movie I have seen since 1989's “Garbage Pail Kids.” It's a movie I'm supposed to love. I am its target audience. It's flashy, stylized and violent. It deals with taboos like cannibalism and pedophilia. Strippers and hookers are everywhere, scantly clad and nude.

But most of all, Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez are involved. Usually, neither can do much wrong. The last time they teamed up, they brought us “From Dusk Till Dawn,” which is not only one of my favorite horror movies, it's one of my favorite movies, period. Rodriguez's last effort, “Once Upon a Time in Mexico,” was enjoyable and Tarantino's “Kill Bill 1&2” were Oscar worthy. I even love their less embraced movies like “Jackie Brown,” “Spy Kids 3D: Game Over” and “The Adventures of Sharkboy & Lavagirl in 3D.”

But nothing works here for me with “Sin City.” It's as boring as watching a fish tank. A fish tank without fish or water. It's lifeless and empty. It's like the technology involved in making “Sin City” sucked out the film's soul. You've got to be able to care about characters or at least have some reason to watch a movie besides pretty images flashing in front of your face.

I saw this film once at the theater and almost walked out half way though. I probably should have because it didn't get any better. As the movie went on, it only got worse. When I gave the film another chance, thinking maybe I was in the wrong mindset when I first saw it, I didn't finish it.

The movie wants to be like “Pulp Fiction” and there are some people who buy into this. It's a film noir with multiple stories and Bruce Willis is in it, but that is where the comparison ends.

There are about 300 story lines in this movie. That is a slight exaggeration, but not by much. Most of the stories are pointless and unamusing.

The best part of the movie was the character Marv played by Mickey Rourke. Had the movie been just about him and his story, “Sin City” would have been good. I found myself feeling this character was extremely familiar. That's because he is very similar to Ron Pearlman's “Hellboy.” Like this movie, it was also based off a comic book/graphic novel, but I actually enjoyed it.

So don't dump me in the category of people who hate comic books, graphic novels or whatever the hell you want to call them and movies based on them. Besides “Hellboy,” I also liked “Tank Girl” and “The Crow.”

But I do believe that the main reason I don't like this film is because it is too much like the comic book. I don't read comic books. I've tried, but it was never my thing. I own two or three comic books. One is signed by Kevin Smith, one other is some Bruce Lee comic and there are a few others I can't recall. I don't own them because of their contents and haven't every opened them. Reading a comic book is kind of like watching an empty fish tank.

This movie basically is a comic book. Everyone talks the same and even use words that hardly anyone uses like “yeesh.” And there about 10 references to a man being kicked, stabbed, shot or something painful in the groin area. I don't remember exactly how many or what they were, but one per movie is plenty.

I have a cousin who used to go crazy when damage was caused to a character in that way. He would scream at the top of his lungs and grab himself. I haven't seen a movie with him in a very long time. If I were to ever watch “Sin City” again that would be about the only reason. His reaction would be so over the top, I would probably find myself enjoying the movie. I would then have to change my review. But then again, that might not have helped the film much.

- CCF, February 2006