Steve Rhodes
April 8th 05, 12:10 AM
SIN CITY
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2005 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): * 1/2
Watching SIN CITY, along with my large and nearly comatose audience, who
were clearly anything but entertained, gave me an intense sense of sadness,
not about the story but about the movie and what it says about the current
state of the motion picture industry. This lifeless film, which is based on
"a graphic novel," i.e. a hyper-violent brand of comic book, is never about
anything other than its look. Filmed exclusively against a blue screen, the
backdrops were all computer generated. The resulting cinematography had the
colors stripped out, leaving only blacks and whites. Some color was then
reintroduced, especially lots of red blood. The result, as it was in the
similar appearing SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW, is a stylized and
lifeless depiction of humanity.
The only notable attribute of the film, other than its appearance, is its
preoccupation with violence, lots and lots of gratuitous violence. This
NC-17 movie, which the once again brain dead MPAA gave an R rating,
disturbed some of the younger members of our audience, especially a three
year old who didn't like seeing human heads smashed like pineapples with
baseball bats and dogs eating the guts from barely alive victims. Even if
everyone in the audience had long since graduated from college, it would
still have been extremely sad to me to see viewers paying good money to view
this violent pornography on the screen.
The script didn't make me sad, but it almost made me laugh, since it has so
many clichéd lines that it sounds like it was generate by a computer, and
who knows, maybe it was. It features lots of "dames," "broads," "dolls,"
and "fall guys" in just about every other sentence. I guess it is supposed
to be so cheesy that it would be fun to laugh at. But fun was something I
never had in SIN CITY, no matter how many stars it had. I found it about as
enjoyable as being bludgeoned to death, which was exactly how I felt when I
finally left to again breathe the fresh air of real life, 126 long minutes
later.
SIN CITY runs 2:06. It is an NC-17 movie which the MPAA has rated R for
"sustained strong stylized violence, nudity and sexual content including
dialogue" and would be acceptable for college kids and older.
The film is playing in nationwide release now in the United States. In the
Silicon Valley, it is showing at the AMC theaters, the Century theaters and
the Camera Cinemas.
Web: http://www.InternetReviews.com
Email:
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A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2005 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): * 1/2
Watching SIN CITY, along with my large and nearly comatose audience, who
were clearly anything but entertained, gave me an intense sense of sadness,
not about the story but about the movie and what it says about the current
state of the motion picture industry. This lifeless film, which is based on
"a graphic novel," i.e. a hyper-violent brand of comic book, is never about
anything other than its look. Filmed exclusively against a blue screen, the
backdrops were all computer generated. The resulting cinematography had the
colors stripped out, leaving only blacks and whites. Some color was then
reintroduced, especially lots of red blood. The result, as it was in the
similar appearing SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW, is a stylized and
lifeless depiction of humanity.
The only notable attribute of the film, other than its appearance, is its
preoccupation with violence, lots and lots of gratuitous violence. This
NC-17 movie, which the once again brain dead MPAA gave an R rating,
disturbed some of the younger members of our audience, especially a three
year old who didn't like seeing human heads smashed like pineapples with
baseball bats and dogs eating the guts from barely alive victims. Even if
everyone in the audience had long since graduated from college, it would
still have been extremely sad to me to see viewers paying good money to view
this violent pornography on the screen.
The script didn't make me sad, but it almost made me laugh, since it has so
many clichéd lines that it sounds like it was generate by a computer, and
who knows, maybe it was. It features lots of "dames," "broads," "dolls,"
and "fall guys" in just about every other sentence. I guess it is supposed
to be so cheesy that it would be fun to laugh at. But fun was something I
never had in SIN CITY, no matter how many stars it had. I found it about as
enjoyable as being bludgeoned to death, which was exactly how I felt when I
finally left to again breathe the fresh air of real life, 126 long minutes
later.
SIN CITY runs 2:06. It is an NC-17 movie which the MPAA has rated R for
"sustained strong stylized violence, nudity and sexual content including
dialogue" and would be acceptable for college kids and older.
The film is playing in nationwide release now in the United States. In the
Silicon Valley, it is showing at the AMC theaters, the Century theaters and
the Camera Cinemas.
Web: http://www.InternetReviews.com
Email:
************************************************** *********************
Want free reviews and weekly movie and video recommendations via Email?
Just send me a letter with the word "subscribe" in the subject line.