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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Menu Guide Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us April 7, 2005 'Sin City' is bold, original By David Germain The Associated Press “Sin City” is simultaneously the most boldly original comic-book adaptation yet and one of the nastiest films in a long while. With wicked glee, director Robert Rodriguez piles on and piles on, his frenetic hodgepodge of imagery often dazzling yet hurled so fast and thick, the result is the cinematic equivalent of being hit by a bus. This two-hour bullet-train of a picture is packed with images startling in their originality and action that frequently flirts with utter odiousness. The movie is a masterful technical achievement with the emotional underpinning of a stunted male adolescent. Adapted from Frank Miller’s noirish comics, “Sin City” is a movie where men are men and women are target practice, there for the slapping and stabbing and shooting, and any other indignities their male masters dream up. In a traditional full-color film, the gore of “Sin City” would make the movie unwatchable. Presenting it in stark black-and-white, with occasional splashes of color, makes the movie’s blood and guts palatable, though only barely so in its most extreme moments. The Jekyll-and-Hyde filmmaker (Rodriguez also is the man behind the “Spy Kids” family flicks) takes the carnage even beyond that of his blood-soaked vampire tale “From Dusk Till Dawn.” With a huge, well-chosen cast and the blessing of Miller, who was on set as Rodriguez’s co-director, “Sin City” is a gloriously stylized world unlike anything you’ve seen before on screen. As he did with much of “Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over,” Rodriguez shot the actors against green-screen backgrounds, using computer-generated visual effects to add the jutting buildings, seedy alleys and other bleak backdrops of Miller’s Sin City. The filmmakers spin three tales of corruption and violence, the stories and some of the characters loosely interconnected so the trilogy flows seamlessly, without the abrupt transitions of most anthology movies. The most engaging story is that of the hulking, not-so-gentle giant Marv, played by Mickey Rourke, unrecognizable behind makeup that makes his face resemble a carved cinderblock. After an unaccustomed night of sexual bliss with the beautiful prostitute Goldie (Jaime King), Marv wakes to find her dead and goes on a vengeful rampage to identify her killer. “When I need to find something out, I just go and find people who know more than me and I ask them. Sometimes, I ask pretty hard,” says Marv in a delicious bit of understatement. The one honest cop in Sin City, John Hartigan (Bruce Willis), is at the center of another hunt as he scrambles to save an 11-year-old girl from a sexual predator (Nick Stahl). Hartigan’s story picks up eight years later as he again encounters Nancy (Jessica Alba), now an exotic dancer, and is reacquainted with her tormentor, who has mutated through medical treatment into a glowing fiend known as Yellow Bastard. The hero of the third story is ex-photographer Dwight (Clive Owen), a pal to the prostitutes of Sin City who tries to help them cover up the death of a vicious, crooked cop (Benicio Del Toro). Among the roster of other key Sin City denizens: Gail (Rosario Dawson), the iron-fisted leader of the town’s prostitutes; Miho (Devon Aoki), her deadly samurai ally; the cannibalistic killer Kevin (Elijah Wood in a role as far from his heroic Frodo Baggins as imaginable); Bob (Michael Madsen), Hartigan’s turncoat partner; Shellie the waitress (Brittany Murphy); Marv’s nursemaid Lucille (Carla Gugino, the “Spy Kids” mom who tosses aside family-film values with an amazing nude scene); Sen. Roarke (Powers Boothe), Yellow Bastard’s plotting father; street-wise young hooker Becky (Alexis Bledel); Manute (Michael Clarke Duncan), a mountainous mob enforcer; and Josh Hartnett as a seductive hit man. Rodriguez pal Quentin Tarantino spent a day as “guest director,” overseeing a perversely funny scene in which Owen and Del Toro drive through the rain. “Sin City” is meant as good, gory fun, an homage to the manly men and brazen broads of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. Yet the sexism of “Sin City” often slips into misogyny. What may work as pulp entertainment on a comic-book page read in privacy becomes unsettling when played out graphically on a movie screen as an orgy of violence against women. “Sin City,” released by Miramax’s Dimension Films banner, is rated R for sustained strong stylized violence, nudity and sexual content, including dialogue. Running time: 124 minutes. Two stars out of four. Bad Education In Spanish with English subtitles. In the early 60s, two boys, Ignacio and Enrique, discover love, movies and fear in a Christian school. Father Manolo, the school principal and Literature teacher, both witnesses and takes part in these discoveries. The three characters come across one another twice again, in the late 70s and in 1980. These meetings are set to change the life and death of some of them. Written and Directed by Pedro Almodovar — “All About My Mother,” “Talk to Her,” “Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!” Gael Garcia Bernal, Fele Martinez, Javier Camara, Daniel Gimenex-Cacho NC-17 for a scene of explicit sexual content/109 min. Beauty Shop After her scamming boss takes credit for her work, Gina opens her own shop where her uptown clients clash with those from downtown. Queen Latifah, Djimon Honsou, Mena Suvari, Kevin Bacon, Andie McDowell. PG-13 for sexual material, language and brief drug references/105 min. Bride and Prejudice In English, Hindi and Punjabi with English subtitles It begins in a modest Indian village when a woman sets out to find husbands for her four beautiful daughters. The smart and headstrong Lalita announces she will only marry for love, giving her mother nightmares. When Lalita meets wealthy AmericanWill Darcy, sparks fly. Music, dance and spectacle merge with love, vanity and society in this Bollywood adaptation of Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice”. Directed by Gurinder Chadha (“Bend it Like Beckham”) Aishwarya Rai, Martin Henderson, Daniel Gillies PG-13 for some sexual references/111 min. Fever Pitch A businesswoman falls in love with an obsessed Boston Red Sox fan, calling into question who must change what priorities. Directed by Bobby and Peter Farrelly (“There’s Something About Mary”); Starring Drew Barrymore, Jimmy Fallon. PG-13 for crude and sexual humor, and some sensuality/108 min. (includes a short) Guess Who Percy is taking no chances with his daughter’s future, and has her latest boyfriend, Simon, checked out. On paper, he passes with flying colors. But one thing Percy doesn’t know is that Simon is white, and wants to marry his daughter. Bernie Mac, Ashton Kutcher, Zoe Saldana, Judith Scott. PG-13 for sexual humor/104 min. Hotel Rwanda Ten years ago one million people were brutally murdered in only three months, an atrocity largely overlooked by the rest of the world. Inspired by his love for his family, an ordinary man summoned extraordinary courage to save the lives of over a thousand helpless refugees by granting them shelter in the hotel he managed. Directed by Alejandro Amenabar (“The Others,” “Open Your Eyes”) Don Cheadle, Sophie Okonedo PG-13 for violence, disturbing images and brief strong language, 121 min. Merchant of Venice William Shakespeare’s tale of a man, Antonio, who offers to go into debt for a loan so that his friend will have enough money to court a certain woman. The debt is owed to Shylock, a moneylender who demands a pound of flesh if the loan cannot be repaid. Directed by Michael Radford. Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons, Lynn Collins, Joseph Fiennes. R for some nudity/138 min. Million Dollar Baby A fighter turned trainer eventually agrees to train a woman in her early 30’s who is determined to begin a boxing career. The two discover in each other a sense of family they lost long ago. Directed by Clint Eastwood; Starring Clint Eastwood, Hilary Swank, Morgan Freeman. PG-13 for violence, some disturbing images, thematic material and brief drug use, 137 min. Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous Gracie Hart has become a glorified public relations mascot for the FBI after her pageant exploits, but when two friends are kidnapped she must find a way to get back in the field and solve the case. Sandra Bullock, Regina King, William Shatner, Heather Burns. PG-13 for sex related humor/107 min. Sahara Based on the Clive Cussler bestseller, NUMA agent Dirk Pitt discovers the lost barge of a pharaoh on the bottom of the Nile river. Before he can raise it, though, he’s summoned to investigate the source of poisons that are creating a huge red tide, one that will soon shrink the world’s oxygen supply to unlivable levels. And then there’s that plague that is turning natives in Africa into bloodthirsty, rampaging cannibals. Matthew McConaughey, Steve Zahn, Penelope Cruz, William H. Macy PG-13 for action violence/124 min. Sin City Sin City, a place infested with criminals, crooked cops and sexy dames, some searching for vengeance, some for redemption. Based on a series of graphic novels, the film incorporates storylines from three: “Sin City,’ “That Yellow Bastard,” and “The Big Fat Kill.” Written and Directed by Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller. Bruce Willis, Jessica Alba, Mickey Rourke, Clive Owen, Rosario Dawson, Benicio Del Toro, Brittany Murphy, Elijah Wood, Josh Hartnett. R for sustained strong stylized violence, nudity and sexual content including dialogue/126 min. Upside of Anger Abandoned by her husband, a woman finds her life changed when a once-great baseball star steps in as her drinking buddy and becomes an ad-hoc member of her dysfunctional family. Joan Allen, Kevin Costner. R for language, sexual situations, brief comic violence and some drug use/116 min. Vera Drake 3 Academy Award Nominations including Best Director, Actress, Original Screenplay. Set in 1950’s London, Vera, a cheerful, grandmotherly woman performs abortions long before they were legalized in Britain. When one of her patients nearly dies, Vera’s practice is revealed to the police and she falls into the legal system. Directed by Mike Leigh (“Topsy Turvy”, “Secrets and Lies”) Imelda Staunton, Phil Davis, Peter Wight, Adrian Scarborough, Heather Craney R for depiction of strong thematic material, 125 min. 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