From The Back Row... Sin City (2005)
Robert Rodriguez' dark, stylised take on Frank Miller's Sin City stories is a loud, coarse, sexy adventure full of hot dames, big palookas and loud guns. Lifted from three of the Sin City graphic novels (The Hard Goodbye, That Yellow Bastard & The Big Fat Kill), replete with an excellent cast, it's not quite anything you're likely to have seen at the multiplex for awhile, if ever.
Despite performing under some heavy prosthetics Mickey Rourke's turn as the brutal Marv shows that he still has the acting chops. Likewise, when given some scenery to chew, Bruce Willis proves that he's up to the task. Elijah Wood turns in his best (and least annoying) performance to date however, as much as I like Clive Owen, his accent has a tendency to be a bit too much on he on the light and flaky side.
Jaime King's character brings one of the few splashes of colour to the film however, given the amount of red that would otherwise appear on screen (especially when Rosario Dawson and Devon Aoki are in full 'violent retribution' mode), that's probably a good thing (as it was all the "black blood" on screen reminded me of something Dr Lecktor says in Manhunter).
All shot against a blue screen, with the backdrops added on after, in stark black & white, the film plays out as an almost perfect recreation of the graphic novels; I can see why Frank Miller wouldn't let go of it and his input is in every frame. The judicious use of colour, tied with the comic-like framing, matches the source material so well that the comics have been very effectively brought to life. It's an almost but not quite shot-for-shot experience, blending the stories together ensures there's enough difference between the two mediums to keep both fans of the source material and action movie lovers happy.
Admittedly it could be argued that there's nothing underneath the stylised exterior (just hard-bitten dialogue and enough flesh to keep the Dirty Mac Brigade happy) but the same can be levelled at the source material. Now, can we have a Ronin given the same treatment please?
8/10
Despite performing under some heavy prosthetics Mickey Rourke's turn as the brutal Marv shows that he still has the acting chops. Likewise, when given some scenery to chew, Bruce Willis proves that he's up to the task. Elijah Wood turns in his best (and least annoying) performance to date however, as much as I like Clive Owen, his accent has a tendency to be a bit too much on he on the light and flaky side.
Jaime King's character brings one of the few splashes of colour to the film however, given the amount of red that would otherwise appear on screen (especially when Rosario Dawson and Devon Aoki are in full 'violent retribution' mode), that's probably a good thing (as it was all the "black blood" on screen reminded me of something Dr Lecktor says in Manhunter).
All shot against a blue screen, with the backdrops added on after, in stark black & white, the film plays out as an almost perfect recreation of the graphic novels; I can see why Frank Miller wouldn't let go of it and his input is in every frame. The judicious use of colour, tied with the comic-like framing, matches the source material so well that the comics have been very effectively brought to life. It's an almost but not quite shot-for-shot experience, blending the stories together ensures there's enough difference between the two mediums to keep both fans of the source material and action movie lovers happy.
Admittedly it could be argued that there's nothing underneath the stylised exterior (just hard-bitten dialogue and enough flesh to keep the Dirty Mac Brigade happy) but the same can be levelled at the source material. Now, can we have a Ronin given the same treatment please?
8/10
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