Friday, January 30, 2015

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For


Directed by Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller.

2014. Rated R, 102 minutes.
Cast:
Eva Green
Mickey Rourke
Jessica Alba
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Josh Brolin
Dennis Haybert
Rosario Dawson
Christopher Meloni
Bruce Willis
Powers Boothe
Ray Liotte
Jamie Chung
Christopher Lloyd
Juno Temple

After all these years, we finally get to spend some more time in the tremendously seedy Basin City. The population seems to be rapidly declining and it's not due to people moving away. Think Gotham City on steroids. This go round, we again pal around with Marv (Rourke) on a quest to kill. We also get to hang with Nancy (Alba) as she deals with the death of Hartigan (Willis). A group of newcomers also gets lots of face time. First up is Johnny (Gordon-Levitt), a high-stakes gambler who always wins. He's come into town in search of big bucks, and possibly, something more. Lastly, there's Dwight (Brolin), Mort (Meloni), Ava (Green), our titular dame, and some others in a love polygon of some sort.

Visually, it wisely looks just like 2005's Sin City. Even after nearly a decade it's still striking. We get that crisp black and white with startling splashes of color. Shadows are also manipulated to heighten mystery in some shots and physically hide things in others. The characters are not always shot moving naturally. They often move the way they would had co-director and Sin City creator Frank Miller animated them. When they're not moving, they're stuck in poses we might find nestled in the pages of the graphic novel they came from. Like its predecessor, it's about as close as live-action can get to looking like a comic book.


You know the drill. A movie needs to have more than pretty pictures. This one really doesn't. Not much more, anyway. I mean, it's got some vaguely interesting plot lines and lots of action which looks fantastic as we've already discussed. However, it's clearly missing some things. Our first inclination that this isn't quite whole is when we encounter someone transplanted directly from the original: Marv. Even though he pretty much leads the movie off, he feels tacked on. It's as if the film makers realized he was the most popular character from the first movie and just shoved him in there any way possible. In the original, his story was simple, yet compelling. His motivations were clear and purposeful. Here, he's more or less, just some guy hanging around the strip club looking for trouble to get into. He finds some by himself, and tags along into some more, but none of it has the endearing quality his quest for vengeance had the first time around. Another returning character suffers an even worse fate. Nancy is completely pathetic as she drinks, cries, "strips" without taking anything off, and repeatedly not go through with killing Roark (Boothe). The pattern merely repeats itself ad nauseum. It's meant to make her this ultra-sympathetic character, but comes off as rather silly due to the overwrought script and Alba's lack of acting chops.

The movie doesn't fare much better with the newbies. The whole love whatever that thing is doesn't sizzle the way its obviously intended. It keeps telling us it's sexy rather than actually being sexy. Granted, looking at Eva Green naked for extended periods of time is quite nice, but doesn't really generate the heat necessary to carry this portion of the movie. In lieu of any emotional connection any man might feel for her, or any really effective psychological manipulation from her, her body becomes the entirety of her worth to the men in the film and us, as well. Again, it's a great body, but hardly enough to make these guys go to such lengths to stay in her good graces. This leaves Johnny's story. Thankfully, it has at least a little oomph, which is a more than the others. Part of this is due to a wonderful turn by Joseph Gordon-Levitt. A larger part is that Johnny is the only character as insanely driven as everyone was that first time around. Better yet, we don't immediately know what drives him. This could be a turn off, but it intrigues us. We clearly see that he's defiant and seems to have a death wish. Wondering why keeps us engaged in his exploits.

The biggest missing element of all is the original's humor. Not only was it twisted, it put its warped sensibilities in your face. It did this through the brilliant use of classic noir inspired, yet profane language. Very few movies can rival Double Indemnity in the creativity of its dialogue. The first Sin City is one that does. It's cleverness puts me in stitches whenever I watch it. This time, the only one who really delivers in that area is Jeremy Piven as Bob, a detective in the Eva Green story. Otherwise, despite having the same people behind it, the dialogue comes off as a poor imitation of its predecessor. It captures the surface style, but not the essence that made it great. In a nutshell, that really is the problem with nearly every facet of this movie. To create the sequel, directors Rodriguez and Miller definitely used the bottle marked Sin City. They just never caught the lightning to go in it.

14 comments:

  1. I think Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller should never work together ever again. It seems like they both tried to repeat ideas that worked in the first place only to lose sight of what made the original so clever and daring. Rodriguez has been on a cold streak as of late. He needs some time off and re-think about what he wants to do. Never work with Jessica Alba again. She is beautiful but can't act for shit.

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    1. Yeah, it seems they got all they could out of it and need to move on. Rodriguez definitely needs to go back to the drawing board. His movies have become parodies of his better movies instead of showing growth as a film maker.

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  2. This was a huge disappointment compared to the first film. Even with Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who is wonderful, they just couldn't live up to the first one.

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    1. Exactly. This one failed to measure up in every aspect.

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  3. This one was so bad it had me doubting my initial reaction to the first one.

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    1. I did that, too. Hence, why I wrote so much about the original, here.

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  4. Because the first was so great, I had high expectations. I agree with you, it was a huge disappointment. The only good things I can really say about the film is that I got to see Eva Green & Juno Temple in mainstream films, which really doesn't happen too often(especially for the latter).
    The parts with Roark seemed so last minute, which really sucked. I feel like they just added him in here and there to appease the fans. It didn't seem well thought out.

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    1. The way you feel about Roark is the way I feel about Marv, too. There's just a bunch of pieces that don't fit together like they should.

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  5. I didn't think it was nearly as horrible as most claimed, however casting Josh Brolin was a huge mistake - he has 0 charisma. Eva Green for me made this worth seeing, she even makes my top 10 supporting actresses in 2014

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    1. It's not that it was so horrible, but the letdown is tremendous because most of us think the first one is so good. I'm actually a fan of Brolin, but don't really like him here. Eva Green did what she could. I just don't think she had enough to work with.

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  6. This sequel is such a letdown considering how good the first one was. Eva Green was great and perfectly cast but too bad the script & dialog was just awful.

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    1. Yeah, they were all sorts of terrible. Huge letdown after the first movie.

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  7. The overwhelming opinion seems to be that this really sucks. Because of that I'm staying waaay away from it!

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    1. Yeah, do yourself that favor. I promise you're not missing anything other than Eva Green naked.

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