Bloody Good

Sin City
Dimension Home Video


Torture. Sexual molestation. Castration. More castration. Routinely unpleasant are the destinies that await the corrupt cops, vengeance-fueled lugs and gun-toting hookers who populate comic-book legend Frank Miller’s Sin City books. But a worse fate than any, at least for fans of Miller’s noir-drenched graphic novels, would have been for these larger-than-life characters to be turned into watered-down imitations of themselves by some rent-a-hack Hollywood director.

That they were spared this is thanks to absurdly prolific Tex-Mex auteur and comics nut Robert Rodriguez, whose string of hits (the Spy Kids franchise, Once Upon a Time in Mexico) and personal studio complex in Austin have put him in a position to do pretty much whatever he wants. Which is how he was able to bring three of Miller’s seven Sin City books to the big screen in as faithful a manner as possible and, just in case he was ever tempted to deviate from the path of righteousness, get Miller himself to co-direct.

True, this move resulted in Rodriguez’s resigning from the infamously strident Directors Guild of America, but it also resulted in a film in which almost every Miller brushstroke, broken heart and unspeakably violent plot twist is reproduced to dazzling effect.

Gasp at the tawdry hotness of a fishnet-clad Rosario Dawson! Ask, “Hey, isn’t that Mickey Rourke under all that makeup?” as Rourke’s Marv, less a character than a force of nature, seeks his revenge on a cannibal serial killer! Geek out on the DVD’s commentary and storyboards, or buy it for your PSP! (Or don’t—Rodriguez says another version featuring longer, stand-alone versions of the film’s presently interlocking tales should be available by year’s end.) Whatever you do, there’s no doubt that Sin City, unlike many of its characters, has balls.