Hellboy, which suffered from a weak, confusing script, Sin City weaves a Pulp Fiction-esque narrative which snakes through the dark streets and crooked alleyways of this hellish metropolis like a fever dream.In short, Sin City delivers a blistering ballet of bullets and blood, dames and danger at every turn. It's a kinetic masterpiece of pop culture for the new millennium and a case could be made that this was the movie that CGI was invented for .As a Frank Miller fan for over 25 years, I know his work and I know Sin City – and this Sin City will knock your socks off whether you are a fan or a newcomer to the dark delights of his devilish imagination and brutal style. Exceeding my expectations on all levels, this movie ranks as one of the most enjoyable cinema-going experiences I've had in years.Everything works here. From Rodriguez's cinematography and editing, to the seamless direction no mean feat when you consider Robert co-directed with Miller and Quentin Tarantino joined the mix as "Special Guest Director" , to the spot-on casting. The script gives Bruce Willis, Mickey Rourke, Clive Owen and Benicio Del Toro plenty of opportunity to chew the scenery – and they do, especially Rourke, who, despite having his mug buried under a thick layer of gruesome latex, delivers one of the best performances of his career and steals the show as Marv, the giant thug with a broken heart. The ladies hold their own, too. Jessica Alba, Rosario Dawson, Brittany Murphy and Jaime King are all great in their roles, particularly Dawson as machine gun-wielding Dominatrix/Hooker-Godmother Gail. And kudos to Elijah Wood proving there is life after Hobbits and Nick Stahl who deliver contrasting performances as vile villains, the ultra-creepy Kevin and the disgusting Yellow bastard, respectively.Sin City is smart, stylish, sexy and sick. It's also violent and funny. Certainly not a film for the whole family, but for those of us who enjoy our movies rated R, this flick kicks the head and the gut like a mule.Here's hoping Sin City makes a mint, for there are 10,000 stories in the naked sinful city, and this is but a handful of them. I'm already praying for a sequel.A picture perfect "ten" for this cineast.

aside, as far as it being a movie and a work of art, I would give this movie high marks in both categories. For it being a movie, it was nice to see something so different as far as the approach to making it go. Also, having such an incredible cast makes it all the more intriguing. I don't see anyone else having portrayed any of these characters any better than the cast that was hired to do so.On an artistic level, it is extremely hard to think of any other movie that comes close to being in the same league. I did not see Sky Captain, but I would say that anyone who liked Pleasantville for its cinematography and graphic elements, would love Sin City. The use of black and white photography with only specific colors added later make for a far more dramatic effect. And so much of the cinematography being so close to a "moving picture" version of comic book art simply makes this movie worth seeing.Take the artistic elements of this movie, and put it together with the amazing cast both looks and talent and throw it together with a very different but coherent plot, and you've got yourself an extremely enjoyable movie that is definitely worth seeing. And seeing at the theater no less!My hats off to Robert Rodriguez, Frank Miller, and the rest of the cast and crew for putting together something different for a change. My only complaint about the whole movie - the use of labeling Quentin Tarantino as a "Special Guest Director" is almost too lame to deal with.

Basin City it became painfully obvious that it was just too visceral a place to ever be real in a way that could be encapsulated on film, or at least we, including Miller himself, thought. We were wrong.This is THE comic movie we have been waiting for and it does not disappoint from the first overly dramatic voice-over to the last frame of the credit scroll. Telling three tales from Miller's world The Hard Goodbye, The Big Fat Kill, and That Yellow Bastard the comic transitions from paper to cellulose flawlessly and believably with a grace seldom seen. This ease is especially incredible for something so over the top and stylized like this that it's almost hard to imagine that these are the actors you've grown to know and love for years. But they are and it all comes together beautifully.The cast, crew, and artists involved in making this adaptation a reality should be commended for their service to the idea that a true comic book movie can, in fact, be made without making concessions to the masses, without altering the plot or changing the characters, and still manage to retain the feel that the ink on paper had while creating a truly entertaining film. Much of this film's success can be directly contributed to the fantastic casting job which encompasses an incredibly long list of a-list and up and coming celebs plus a few obscure but cult favorites yes, I'm talking to you Rutger and the tag team direction of Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez. Rodriguez should be particularly touted for pushing Miller to finally do this project, and for leading the way to make this the film that Miller always wanted it to be and that Rodriguez knew he could make.While I do have a few nit-picky points of contention with cut dialog or certain actors/actresses that refused to bare it all for the sake of keeping intact every last detail from the books it doesn't change the fact that what was laid out on the polyester film stock before me was every bit as entertaining as the original works, and it made a pretty darn good flick to boot. If it's not already self-evident, the bar has been raised for the comic movie. The next brave soul willing to venture in had better be prepared to take on Sin City.

and I thought the brief Josh Hartnett spots were great bookends to the movie. I was amazed the entire length of the screening.If you're into comics at all you'll love this movie. You won't be disappointed. I'm not sure how to recommend it to others but you certainly don't need to be a comics fan to enjoy it. I loved it without reservation.

of the three great inventions of cinema is the notion of noir, that particular framing of narrative where the very act of watching creates a cosmology that neither belongs to the world of the watcher, nor the characters but which tortures both by arranging coincidences. All these coincidences include the coincidence that you the viewer happen to be there together with the narrator. The act of watching transmutes the vision into something you'd see, in well... a comic book.In this case we have noir become cinema, become the genre of "graphic novel" become a specific movie that in its collage is neonoir.That collage is three stories in a wrapper: Willis is a convict, framed by Senator Roark protecting his son, who protects a stripper; Rourke the actor is a convict, framed by Cardinal Roark protecting his adopted son, who gets revenge for the death of a prostitute and is protecting other prostitutes ; Owen is a convict targeted by Roark, protecting a whole society of prostitutes. Each has a hospital stay.These stories cross at several points as if they were independent threads in the same city. But wait. In neonoir, we have folds that the noir of the forties didn't have. That means that to some extent these stories all collapse into one. And yes, all three main characters not counting the salesman who is our surrogate hallucinate to such an extent that they could be imagining their situation into the other story.In other words, each of the three stories contains a "dream sequence" which is the others, each within themselves, and all within the bar. The wrapper is the salesman who seduces us, selling us one thing and slyly slipping in another.It must be hell to be a filmmaker with a flood of ideas, the digital means to make many of them happen and have no story to animate. Miller's stuff is just an excuse — a passable one — for the real artistry here. If Rodriguez makes three of these as we expect , let's hope he tinkers with the idea as much as he did with the spy kids and desperado notions.Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

stories that come together in the end, similar to Pulp Fiction but easier to follow. Hartigan Bruce Willis was the star of the first story. He was a cop who would stop at nothing to insure an 11 year old girl's safety. Marv Mickey Rourke , my personal favorite character in the movie, was a man who was set up to look like a murderer and must overcome incredible odds to clear his name. Dwight Clive Owen is the star of the 3rd story, which begins as he must protect his girlfriend, Shellie Brittany Murphy , from her evil ex-boyfriend, Jackie Boy Benicio Del Toro .All three stories are extremely violent and very adult oriented. That is probably why I liked it. It was a very adult themed comic book movie. I can not find any faults in any of the characters or actors. I enjoyed all those I wrote of earlier as well as some honorable mentions, which include Jessica Alba, Elijah Wood, Rosario Dawson, Jaime King, Devon Aoki, Carla Gugino, Alexis Bledel, Michael Madsen and really the entire cast.Overall, this movie is full of hardcore and violent images, yet still maintains it's comic book feel. It is very different from other movies of the genre such as Spider-Man or Hulk but closer to The Punisher but felt a little darker. If you like dark movies full of violence and sexy women, then I can highly recommend this to you. 9.5/10

the overly corny duologue and scenes where scantily And I DO mean scantily clad women pull Uzi's out of literally nowhere, and you have all the right makings for a transfer of a comic book to the screen. The duologue had me laughing almost constantly, but it's easy to tell that they wanted you to laugh, even when they lines were incredibly corny and melodramatic...The performances in the movie were great as well. I believe my favorite male character was Marv, played by Micky Rourke, and my favorite female character was definitely Miho, played by Devon Aoki. It seems that everyone and their dog was either in this movie, or lent some of their talents to it, and it shows.I would definitely suggest that you see this in the theatre the very first time, because it will NEVER have the same impact on your TV at home as it does on a 30-foot screen in a dark theatre. I was actually able to note a few times where the digital cameras were able to outperform anything film could do.A lot of violence in this movie, although most of it is either totally cartoon-style, or off camera, and some gore as well... A good amount of nudity in the film, ALL of it on camera, so you'll probably want to leave the kiddies at home.All in all, one of the best movies I have seen in a long time, and I'll probably go see it again while it's in the theatres, so that my fiancé can enjoy it as well...

writing for the past twenty odd years, brimming with many of his trademark elements and visual style that he, along with Messrs. Rodriguez and Tarantino, capture brilliantly. Not for more sensitive or under aged souls, Sin City will burn like a fire that you have to watch for everyone else.

This movie is nothing more than an exercise in violence, gore, some sex, mutilation, cannibalism, flying blood, murder, and almost anything else designed to disgust your average viewer. The rampant violence had no real point, the extreme, and sometimes sickening scenes seemed to be there for no reason, but no, this is art. Sure murder and cannibalism have so much artistic expression. This movie has the artistic expression of a broken pencil, but there's probably someone that thinks a broken pencil has artistic expression, after seeing this movie I don't know what to think.I don't know how people can get shot 40 times and get minor injuries. People can get punched and it doesn't even scar them. Violence is so glorified and worse so unrealistic here. I have been assaulted, it is not fun, there is no glory in it, nothing fun, getting beat up is not nearly as vogue as it is here. If I had been shot 40 times I would not be laughing about it I would be dead. I have not seen a movie that glorified violence as much as this movie. This film makes sheer violence for the sake of violence look like it's all a game. The second most violent movie is like the Care Bears compared to this. Sin City tries to create an atmosphere of film noir. It is in black and white, and shot in a unique film noir camera style, giving the movie an interesting premise. The film starts out fascinating, and fairly interesting, but after 20 minutes the movie bombs. I never thought I would say the best part of a movie had Josh Hartnett in it.Some promoters said nothing like this movie had been seen before, neither had the Hindenburg, but that doesn't mean it was a good thing. This movie has the distinction of being the most violent movie and the most boring movie ever made. I looked at my watch more than a few times during this movie hoping it was over. I wanted to fall asleep, and I wasn't tired, the movie dragged on and on for more than two hours and had virtually no points of interest past the beginning. I never knew a movie could be this boring, but yet again I was proved wrong, this movie makes dripping water look interesting. Part of the reason this movie was so boring were the characters, I can understand over the top acting and characters, but the acting in this movie was awful, their characterizations made the acting the quality of a first grade play. I have never seen a group of characters so unbelievable and so awful, to the point that just looking at any of these people is revolting. Even with a cast of Bruce Willis, Clive Owen, Rutger Hauer, Michael Clarke Duncan, and so many others should be at least decent. It isn't. The most repulsive of the characters is Rosario Dawson a dominatrix prostitute who leads a bunch of hookers in trying to save the lot of whores from a pimp who wants to control them. She gives bad acting a new idol, I hope I never have to see Rosario Dawson try to act again. All she does is add to this movies sexist tone. Almost every woman, if not all women are victims, who must be protected by strong men, women for the most part are unable to take care of themselves, and every woman in this movie is a sex object, someone who is valued primarily if not solely for sex, in some capacity.The movie has some attacks on politicians, police, and especially the Catholic church, and the city tries to resemble a major American city, but none in particular besieged by corruption, poverty and crime. But as everything in this movie does, it is all taken to the extreme. Any minor or marginal social commentary becomes an excuse for more violence, or another way to try and shock the audience. I can see immature people, especially kids saying "Hey cool you can shoot someone 50 times and they can still be alive!" And you know this could happen, if it happened with the Three Stooges, who knocked each other on the heads with hammers and wrenches, and survived unbruised, it could happen here. If you are considering watching this movie And I strongly advise against it Keep in mind the only thing that kept this movie from being NC-17 was due to the fact it was filmed primarily in black and white. I think this movie still should have had an NC-17 rating, this movie was very very very very violent, and too much of the gore was shown in color for my taste. I wish I had never seen this movie, heard of this movie or had anything to do with this movie. Sin City is like looking at day old road kill: and you wish you hadn't looked at it. Both will probably make you gag, they both have that same kind of effect. If you want to see a good comic book movie watch Spider man, that is fun to watch, this movie is horrible, beyond horrible to no end and if you paid a cent to see it you wasted your money.