{"id":49,"date":"2005-04-02T11:21:39","date_gmt":"2005-04-02T16:21:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.blackgate.net\/blog\/index.php\/2005-04-02\/review-sin-city"},"modified":"2005-09-24T21:24:15","modified_gmt":"2005-09-25T02:24:15","slug":"review-sin-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blackgate.net\/blog\/review-sin-city\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Sin City"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"image\" href=\"http:\/\/www.blackgate.net\/blog\/wp-content\/sincity9.jpg\" title=\"Sin City movie poster\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.blackgate.net\/blog\/wp-content\/thumb-sincity9.jpg\" alt=\"Sin City movie poster\" style=\"float: right; margin: 1em;\" \/><\/a><strong>Sin City<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Directed by:\n<ul>\n<li>Frank Miller<\/li>\n<li>Robert Rodriguez<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Rated: R <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>Caveat: Reviews are bunk. Trust no one&#8217;s opinion but your own.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Sin City<\/em> is a movie based upon three of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/1593072937\/rpglibrary\/\">Sin City<\/a> comics by Frank Miller. In the comics, Basin City is a rough place populated by rough people: crooked politicians, ugly killers, and beautiful whores. In Miller&#8217;s highly concentrated <em>film noir<\/em> universe, innocence is brutalized and no good deed goes unpunished. Despite this bleak setting, Miller&#8217;s books are successful in being both titillating and amusing. With plentiful use of nudity and violence, Miller&#8217;s &#8220;Sin City&#8221; books are entertaining, if a bit repetitive.<\/p>\n<p>The movie brings to the screen three of Miller&#8217;s comic miniseries (which you can now find collected as &#8220;graphic novels&#8221;). The translation is faithful to a fault. The dialogue and scenery which is evocative and striking on the page of a comic book is merely silly and contrived when seen on a screen populated with real people. Too often, <em>Sin City<\/em> seems more like a parody of <em>film noir<\/em> than a real movie. In some scenes the dialogue is so bad that the audience I was part of couldn&#8217;t help laughing, and I joined them.<\/p>\n<p>I was reminded of another movie adaptation of a comic, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/B00005T7I1\/rpglibrary\/\"><em>Dick Tracy<\/em><\/a>. The two movies have a lot in common, aside from their graphic origins. Both feature characters in heavy appliances, purple dialogue, implausible plots, and visual styles that are more appropriate to a small page than a big screen. However, <em>Sin City<\/em> is even more cartoonlike than <em>Dick Tracy<\/em>, with characters even more shallow and stereotypical. About halfway through the movie, it seems that <em>Sin City<\/em> is lapping itself: beautiful whore, ugly killer, crooked politician. How many times can we see the same story in one film? Apparently the answer is &#8220;four&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Some will also draw parallels to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/B000068DBC\/rpglibrary\/\"><em>Pulp Fiction<\/em><\/a>, the brilliant second film from Quentin Tarentino. Both movies have a non-linear timeline, and both movies feature outrageous violence. But the similarity ends there. <em>Pulp Fiction<\/em> has a variety of unique and interesting characters with clever and realistic dialogue. <em>Sin City<\/em> has three characters (i.e., ugly killer, beautiful whore, crooked politician) with dialogue so over-the-top and melodramatic that it parodies actual <em>film noir<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>What works on the comic page does not often work on the big screen: the exceptions are dramatic and well-known. For example, <em>The Crow<\/em> deviated significantly from the comic in both style and substance, but it was a much better movie. In fact, I think <em>The Crow<\/em> as a movie was a much better movie than &#8220;The Crow&#8221; as a comic was as a comic. &#8220;Sin City&#8221; the comic is a much better comic than <em>Sin City<\/em> the movie is as a movie. It kind of reminds me of early television shows, which were basically radio shows in front of a camera. They&#8217;re different media, and they require different techniques to use them well.<\/p>\n<p>Like so many movie adapations of comics, <em>Sin City<\/em> is mildly entertaining, but not very good. The best way to enjoy Frank Miller&#8217;s work is in print, but if it&#8217;s <em>film noir<\/em> you are looking for, you would be better off renting <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/6305729328\/rpglibrary\/\"><em>The Maltese Falcon<\/em><\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/6305999872\/rpglibrary\/\"><em>Touch Of Evil<\/em><\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/0790729628\/rpglibrary\/\"><em>Blade Runner<\/em><\/a>, or <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/B000069I1U\/rpglibrary\/\"><em>The Grifters<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Style: 5\/5 (faithfully reproduces the look of the comic)<br \/>\nSubstance: 2\/5 (a repetitive parody of <em>film noir<\/em>)<br \/>\nWhat&#8217;s it worth: $5.00 &#8211; $6.00 (in the Wal-Mart bargain DVD bin a year from now)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sin City Directed by: Frank Miller Robert Rodriguez Rated: R Caveat: Reviews are bunk. Trust no one&#8217;s opinion but your own. Sin City is a movie based upon three of the Sin City comics by Frank Miller. In the comics, Basin City is a rough place populated by rough people: crooked politicians, ugly killers, and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movies"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Review: Sin City - Blackmoor Vituperative<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.blackgate.net\/blog\/review-sin-city\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Review: Sin City - Blackmoor Vituperative\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sin City Directed by: Frank Miller Robert Rodriguez Rated: R Caveat: Reviews are bunk. Trust no one&#8217;s opinion but your own. Sin City is a movie based upon three of the Sin City comics by Frank Miller. 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