Sin City: a Dame to Kill for (2014) [Blu-ray]
Crime | Thriller

Co-directors Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller reunite to bring Miller’s visually stunning "Sin City" graphic novels back to the screen in SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR. Weaving together two of Miller’s classic stories with new tales, the town's most hard boiled citizens cross paths with some of its more notorious inhabitants.

Storyline: Co-directors Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller reunite to bring Miller's "Sin City" graphic novels back to the screen. Weaving together two of Miller's classic stories with new tales, the town's most hard boiled citizens cross paths with some of its more notorious inhabitants.

Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Kenneth Brown, November 14, 2014 -- It's been almost ten years since Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller stunned audiences and comicbook fans with Sin City (2005), a pulpy, visually striking gut-punch of a neo-noir genre pic that was both wholly original and startlingly faithful to Miller's own graphic novel series. No one had seen anything like it before, and the handful of imitators that followed failed -- and failed miserably -- to match its style, sophistication and critical acclaim. Unfortunately, A Dame to Kill For, Sin City's long, looong, looooong-awaited sequel, arrived earlier this year to a less-than-enthusiastic crowd of gawking onlookers, turned off audiences, bombed at the box office and managed to land itself on the very same list of misguided imitators topped by Miller's The Spirit (2008). A Dame to Kill For looks the part... sort of... but it's hollow, cartoonish and, for a film that takes itself so seriously, much too silly, with a killer cast undone by a script that goes nowhere fast and nowhere interesting.

The sequel weaves together two of Frank Miller's classic stories ("A Dame to Kill For" and "Just Another Saturday Night") with two new tales ("The Long Bad Night" and "The Fat Loss") in which the town's denizens cross paths with some of its more repulsive inhabitants. In "A Dame to Kill For," Dwight (Josh Brolin), a man hunted down by the only woman he ever loved, Ava Lord (Eva Green), is forced to watch his life go straight to hell. In "Just Another Saturday Night," Marv (Mickey Rourke) wakes up on a highway overlooking the Projects on the night John Hartigan (Bruce Willis) meets Nancy (Jessica Alba) in "That Yellow Bastard." Then, in "The Long Bad Night," gambler Johnny (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) meets a young dancer (Julia Garner) and sets out to put a stop to one of the city's most dangerous villains. Finally, in "The Fat Loss," Nancy deals with the climax of "That Yellow Bastard."

There's a moment, much too early in A Dame to Kill For, as a pair of comically undersized cars chase each other in a circle around Marv's head, that it starts to become clear Rodriguez and Miller are far more attached to the visual flair of the sequel than anything more substantive. Each shot ups some undefined ante, leading to erratic, disconnected cinematography beholden to CG wizardry and self-important id. Harsh contrast, bursts of color and comic-panel framing aren't used all that intriguingly, but predictably, and often without significance; a flash of gold, a dash of red, a splash of white blood, a shadow-drenched silhouette, most in service of spectacle that isn't there. Set pieces no longer leap off the comicbook page, they meander out of the FX team's offices. And the dialogue flatlines. So many words. So little actually said. It's steeped in grit and gumshoe gristle, sure, but it rarely creates characters that are as magnetic or compelling as those that populate the original Sin City. Likewise, the music simmers with hard-boiled fanaticism, dutifully throttling muted trumpets, growling saxophones, operatic strings and pulsing percussion whenever the stakes are raised. Yet it rarely evokes the rage, heartache and tragedy Rodriguez and Miller are aiming for.

Green, Brolin and Rourke's sprawling three-tier vignette seems the least out of place, and the most at home within the Sin City film universe, but even it struggles to match the ferocity, intensity and intention of the first film or, for that matter, Miller's 6-issue "Dame to Kill For" limited series, originally published in 1993. The most electrifying vignette, meanwhile, belongs to Rourke and Alba, though Alba doesn't quite descend into revenge-fueled madness as convincingly as Nancy's arc demands. Otherwise, familiar faces hit too-familiar notes (Rourke, Rosario Dawson), re-casted mainstays are miscast (Dennis Haysbert replaces the late Michael Clarke Duncan and Jamie Chung steps in for Devon Aoki), new characters have difficulty leaving a mark (Gordon-Levitt, among others), and briefly glimpsed newcomers strike out (Christopher Meloni and Jeremy Piven). The actors certainly show up, feeding on the energy of their co-stars and leaping headlong into every green-screen fray, but it's often so deliriously over-the-top and underdeveloped that their performances are memorable in all the wrong ways. Not that much blame should be laid at the feet of the cast. They're given precious little to work with and even less that caters to each actor's skill set. From faulty pacing to anticlimactic endgames to dead-end plotting, it's a mediocre prequel wrapped in an aimless sequel, without the dark-alley viciousness or hellcat swagger that made Sin City such a standout.

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For is stuck squarely in the past, consumed more with ties and callbacks to the first film than with establishing something all its own. Style fully trumps substance this go-round, and while the results certainly look like a Sin City sequel, they rarely feel like anything more than a pale imitation. Better luck next time, I suppose. If there is a next time. The film's Blu-ray release at least serves up the goods, with a terrific, 5-star AV presentation. Just don't expect to find any extensive special features. There's none to be had. Bottom line? A rental is probably in order. Fans of the original movie have the best shot at enjoying the sequel, but then again, it's fans of the original that are the most likely to walk away disappointed.

[CSW] -3.6- I rented the 2D version to see if I wanted to get the 3D version and the answer was yes. The first Sin City was better but only by a little bit. This type of film based on graphic novels is a bit of an acquired taste. Though I don't read graphic novels and am not a Frank Miller purist, the unique production design of Sin City 2 is one of the most artistic that I have seen. Almost every frame of this film is, well, frame-worthy. Artistically it is a masterpiece with the selective use of color and black and white. Dramatically, it moves along well and is engaging with a storyline that never bored me for a minute. I can't wait to see it again in 3D.
[V5.0-A5.0] MPEG-4 AVC - No D-Box.


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