SIN CITY (2005)

Usually movies that are based on comic books aren't faithful to the source material. This has been the problem with the whole comic book-to-movie system. This isn't a problem with Sin City. If Sin City has a problem, it's that it's actually too faithful to the comic and this problem is what keeps Sin City from being an excellent film, instead of the very good one it is.
This is easily the best movie Robert Rodriguez has done since From Dusk Till Dawn. It's good to see him working on crazy action movies again, rather than doing more garbage like Spy Kids. He directed the film along with the creator of the comic , Frank Miller, and that's more than likely the reason for the film being such a good translation from the comic. The look and style are perfect, almost as if they were ripped from the pages and put on the screen. The black and white look is beautiful, and the whole look of the city is dead on. What is annoying is the use of color in certain scenes. Marv bleeds red blood when beaten or shot up and it looks great. Other people bleed white, and it looks stupid. The only reasoning I could come up with was that it was to keep the violence in check so that it wouldn't be branded with an NC-17 rating. So the color aspects do weaken some of violence in the film.

The all star casting is perfect. Mickey Rourke steals the show as Marv, and it's good to see him doing big-time films again instead of rotting away in the direct-to-video market. Rourke proves that he still has the talent that made him a star, and that he's just as good as any Hollywood star working today. Clive Owen and Benicio Del Toro also deliver great performances in their small roles as they both usually do. Everyone looks and acts the part. The makeup is fantastic. You can't cast this film any better than this.
Rodriguez also has his trademark action style in Sin City, which is people getting blown away and smashed 20 feet backwards, or up into the air. The movie is a little slow at points and the voice over gets annoying as well, but when the action comes, it kicks in with a bang. Marv's action scenes in particular are excellent. It's some of the best action a film has offered in a while.

If only it didn't use some of the cheesy dialogue from the comic, and if only they filmed all the stories of each character as dark and as gritty as they did Marv's, this could have been something really special. But as it stands, Sin City is still a very good movie. It's slick, stylish, and highly entertaining.