Review: Sin City: A Dame To Kill For has more style over substance
THINK booze, broads and bullets – Sin City: A Dame To Kill For feels more disjointed than the original Sin City, but there’s not a dull moment.
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Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (MA15+)
Directors: Frank Miller, Robert Rodriguez
Starring: Mickey Rourke, Jessica Alba, Josh Brolin, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Eva Green.
Rating: ***
The great graphic novelist Frank Miller and his good buddy, filmmaker Robert Rodriguez, are back together once again.
Just like they did with the original Sin City in 2005, this duo are here to hit you with all the style you can handle. You want substance? You mustn’t have seen the original Sin City.
It was a visual groundbreaker in its time, a frenetic film noir that burnt all existing bridges between the comic book and the big screen, and built something new and wondrous to replace them.
Almost ten years later, Miller and Rodriguez are sticking with the same approach for the sequel Sin City: A Dame To Kill For.
Everything happens in high-contrast black-and-white. Streaks of colour snake in and out of view to make a point, or just add a little pictorial punctuation.
Oh, and the crime, the crooks, the femme fatales and the blood are as relentlessly hard-boiled as ever.
While more of a fans-only affair than its predecessor, A Dame To Kill For still roughs up the senses in a way that is completely different to everything else out there.
Once again, Miller and Rodriguez roll out a suite of faintly intertwined tales, all of which take place in the murderously mood-swinging metropolis of Basin City.
As before, the filmmakers’ tent-pole character is Marv (Mickey Rourke), that freaky-looking freelance henchman who is always one night away from a hangover and a helluva lot of trouble.
The good-looking gambler Johnny (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is also back in the game, though neither the luck nor the ladies are falling in his favour this time around.
The bewitchingly beautiful dancer Nancy (Jessica Alba) is now topping the bill at the notorious Kandie’s Bar, but is secretly planning a targeted hit on a bent politician (Powers Boothe) who has it coming.
A busy (perhaps too busy) ensemble line-up is stretched to include the likes of Josh Brolin, Eva Green, Entourage’s Jeremy Piven and even a ghostly Bruce Willis.
Though A Dame To Kill For feels more disjointed and less innovative than the original Sin City, there is not a dull frame in this picture.
Miller’s unique compositional eye and Rodriguez’s seedier storytelling inclinations make a good fit, and there are a few audacious tech moves that other filmmakers will be scribbling in their notebooks when no-one is looking.
Originally published as Review: Sin City: A Dame To Kill For has more style over substance