Sin City (2005)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2005
	Director: Robert Rodriguez (Planet Terror, From Dusk till Dawn)
	Actors: Mickey Rourke (Iron Man 2), Clive Owen (Children of Men), Bruce Willis (Looper), Jessica Alba (The Fantastic Four 1-2, Machete), Rosario Dawson (Death Proof), Benicio del Toro (Traffic), Michael Clarke Duncan (The Green Line), Michal Madsen (Kill Bill), Tommy Flanagan (Sons of Anarchy), Rutger Hauer (Blade Runner), Nick Stahl (Terminator 3), Elijah Wood (Maniac), Josh Hartnett (Pearl Harbor)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Polar, Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 20.11.2013, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: The town of Sin City is filled with crime and corruption. The good guys are not always the ones you would expect.
Review: I had already seen Sin City once or twice, but it made its way back on my pile of "movies to watch again", probably after I read some good about it, or after watching the performance of Elijah Wood in Pawn Shop Chronicles, or because the sequel Sin City, A Dame to Kill for will be out next year. I had forgotten that the cast was so impressive. As too often in adaptation of comic books (like in 300), the best in this movie is what comes from the comic book, in this case the eponymous Sin City series by Frank Miller: the dark stories, anti-heroes, black and white tones with rare flashy colors, the narrator's voice. The movie doesn't add much to this apart from motion, music and some known faces. Sin City was one of the first movie completely shot in front of blue screens with all backgrounds added later (like Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow). It was praised for that. I don't find it to be extremely well done (looking too artificial) but it is good enough. Also I find that the narrator's voice is too present ; this was OK in a comic book but could have been adapted better for a movie. The Blu-ray edition I have watched includes a few new scenes, and the editing has this time separated the four segments instead of merging them into one movie. The Customer Is Always Right is the shortest segment that briefly shows Hartnett as a contract killer, a nice short story. That Yellow Bastard is the story featuring Bruce Willis as an old cop rescuing Jessica Alba from a rapist, actually son of the mayor. Corruption is everywhere and the story is very dark. The Hard Goodbye features Mickey Rourke as the excellent Marv, mountain of muscles with a little brain, chasing the killer of a woman he loved for one night, exemplar Sin City story. Finally The Big Fat Kill shows Clive Owen as anti-hero fighting side-by-side with a self-managed gang of prostitutes, against a corrupted cop played by Benicio del Toro and the mob.  To summarize, the stories (copied from the comic book) and great and dark, but the adaptation work is insufficient.
Rating: 5 /10