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Dom Robinson reviews
Touchstone Home Video
DVD: 
Limited Edition Boxset:
- Cert:
- Cat.no: BUA 0003401
- Running time: 119 minutes
- Year: 2005
- Pressing: 2005
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 28 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: English, Italian
- Subtitles: English for the hearing-impaired
- Widescreen: 1.85:1
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £19.99
- Extras: Behind the Scenes featurette, Audio Descriptive track
Director:
- Frank Miller & Robert Rodriguez
(Rodriguez: The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D, Desperado, El Mariachi, The Faculty, Four Rooms, From Dusk Till Dawn, Grind House, Once Upon a Time In Mexico, Sin City 1 & 2, Spy Kids 1-3)
Special Guest Director:
- Quentin Tarantino
(Four Rooms, Grind House, Inglorious Bastards, Jackie Brown, Kill Bill Vols 1 & 2, Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, Sin City, TV: ER, CSI)
Producer:
- Elizabeth Avellan
Screenplay:
- Frank Miller
Music:
- John Debney, Graeme Revell & Robert Rodriguez
Cast:
- Nancy: Jessica Alba
Miho: Devon Aoki
Becky: Alexis Biedel
Senator Roark: Powers Boothe
Liebowitz: Jude Ciccolella
Gail: Rosario Dawson
Jackie Boy: Benicio Del Toro
Manute: Michael Clarke Duncan
Lucille: Carla Gugino
The Man: Josh Hartnett
Cardinal Roark: Rutger Hauer
Goldie/Wendy: Jaime King
Bob: Michael Madsen
Priest: Frank Miller
Shellie: Brittany Murphy
Tammy: Lisa Marie Newmyer
Dwight: Clive Owen
Marv: Mickey Rourke
Roark Jr/Yellow Bastard: Nick Stahl
Nancy, age 11: Makenzie Vega
Dallas: Patricia Vonne
Hartigan: Bruce Willis
Kevin: Elijah Wood
I was massively impressed when I first saw clips of Sin Cityas it gave an effective comic-book look to the image, and seeing that it’s taking three stories fromFrank Miller’s graphic novels then it sounds like the right way to go about it, which it is but there’sa but…
Sin City tells three stories, which intermingle slightly but not in any major way that holdsthe plot together – we’re not exactly talkingMagnoliahere. Without spoiling the plot too much, the first tells about hard-done-by world-weary cop JohnHartigan (Bruce Willis, right) who is due to retire but still has time to take on the case of rescuinga kidnapped, 11-year-old girl called Nancy. After a period of years pass, she’s transformed into a bar-topdancer played by the achingly-gorgeous Jessica Alba, who appears in all three pictures in this review,the last one of which isn’t from the film, but who cares. I won’t divulge what happens, but theirs is arelationship that’s set to transcend all others.
The second story features Marv (Mickey Rourke), who is someone with facial features that you wouldn’tbestow on anyone but when he’s framed for a murder he didn’t commit, the victim of which, Goldie (JaimeKing), he happens to wake up next to, he must go on the run in a bid to clear his name with the helpof lesbian parole officer Lucille (the stunning Carla Gugino).
Story three starts with waitressShellie (Brittany Murphy being hassled by drugged-up Jackie Boy (Benicio Del Toro) and hisassociates, but as her boyfriend Dwight (Clive Owen with an iffy American accent) goes off to trackhim down and finish them off the ramifications of this are more than he can handle alone and results in ashowdown in Old Towne between the authorities and him together with a group of hookers who run the district,led by Gail (Rosario Dawson).
All three stories are located within Basin City, hence it’s the truncated name which gives the movie itstitle.
On the plus side, this movie, shot in 1.85:1 with digital video cameras with all the backgroundspasted in after filming and presented here in anamorphic widescreen, has fantastic picturecomposition throughout for the uncompromising subject matter. It’s outstanding the way this movie is madeto look like the original comic book, having been filmed in black and white, with some colour such asred for blood and lipstick and yellow for the eponymous ‘Yellow Bastard’.
Soundwise, while all the sound FX are brilliantly clear and the dialogue is faultless, this DVD is stillmissing the DTS 5.1 soundtrack in favour of an Italian DD5.1 and an English audio-descriptive track.Listen, Buena Vista, DTS is better than DD, so if the DTS soundtrack exists – take it!
On the downside about this film, like theChronicles of Riddickmovie where I’d rather have been playing thegame– this film also looks more like a game that should be played instead of watched as it just cries outto be interactive. Also, the stories don’t quite pan out within their time as they should since it’s alargely a case of style over substance so you start to get a bit bored after a while and realise aftereach part has completed that there wasn’t an awful lot to it in the first place.
There’s an overly large cast so not all of the actors have the same impact they should have on a projectlike this and it can be a little too self-righteous as if the characters have nothing else in their livesto think about – e.g. Marv about Goldie; and Hartigan about Nancy.
Sin City is, audio/visually, still a very appealing way of spending a couple of hours so I’ddefinitely recommend a rental. I’d also like Robert Rodriguez to consider making a movie out of theMax Paynecomputer game character, an experience which had a similar visual feel inbetween the action. Then again,I’d probably be back whinging about the fact I couldn’t jump in and play it…
Extras-wise, sadly this DVD is distinctly lacking. Aside from the aforementioned audio descriptive trackthere’s just an 8-minute Behind the Scenes featurette including a number of soundbites from cast andcrew. Surely there’s more they could’ve included here? Given the way it was shot, a paltry 8-minutes aboutit is an insult.
To conclude, the subtitles are in English only – and their usage makes this movie look even more like acomic book. There are 28 chapters which is a decent amount for this movie’s length, and the menus aredone to suit the movie’s style with a small piece of audio/video repeated.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.