Other Titles • Sin City (2005) • Frank Miller's Sin City
Synopses for Sin City (2005)
1.
An amazing cast of big-screen favorites is directed by Robert Rodriguez (Desperado, From Dusk Till Dawn), Frank Miller - and special guest director Quentin Tarantino (Kill Bill 1 & 2, Pulp Fiction) - in an acclaimed and visually stunning hit that's the coolest movie of the year! Straight from the pages of Miller's hip series of Sin City graphic novels, Bruce Willis stars as a cop with a bum ticker and a vow to protect a sexy stripper (Jessica Alba - Fantastic Four); Mickey Rourke (Man on Fire) as an outcast misanthrope on a mission to avenge the death of his one true love (Jaime King - Pearl Harbor); and Clive Owen (King Arthur) as Dwight, the clandestine love of Shellie (Brittany Murphy - Little Black Book), who spends his night defending Gail (Rosario Dawson - The Devil's Rejects) and her Old Town girls (Devon Aoki and Alexis Bledel) from a tough guy (Benicio Del Toro - 21 Grams) with a penchant for violence. Also starring Elijah Wood, Nick Stahl, Michael Madsen, Carla Gugino and Michael Clarke Duncan.
(118 votes)
2.
The two-disc edition of Sin City easily makes the earlier single-disc theatrical-cut release obsolete by including the regular theatrical cut on the first disc, recutting the movie into four extended segments on the second disc (separated by story line), then piling on an impressive load of bonus features. But there's a catch. Billed as "Recut, Extended, Unrated," with "over 20 minutes" of new footage, the new set's four separate stories are extended by only about 6.5 total minutes of movie action (see details below in "What's New"); the rest of the added running time is the splashy new title shots (named by the title of the story or book) and the four minutes of credits that run at the end of each segment. Each addition makes the movie even closer to the comic books, and these extended segments are generally preferable to the theatrical equivalents (unfortunately, there's no Play All option), but don't expect the same impact as Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings extended editions. And although this version is unrated, the only risqué addition is a bit of violence from Miho that's no worse than the rest of the crazy violence in the film.
How Are the Bonus Features? Robert Rodriguez has always loved DVDs, so the bonus features are extensive. On the first disc, there is somehow room for the theatrical cut of the film with its DTS track (the extended versions have only Dolby 5.1), two commentary tracks, an alternate audio track with a live audience in Austin, Texas, an interactive map of characters and locations, and 47 minutes of featurettes covering Frank Miller, Quentin Tarantino, cars, costumes, props, and special effects. The first commentary is Rodriguez and Miller discussing the concepts and the cast. The second commentary is mostly by Rodriguez, but Tarantino drops in briefly for the scene he directed (with Clive Owen and Benicio Del Toro in the car), as does an enthusiastic Bruce Willis for his segment.
The Tarantino scene gets a lot of attention on the second disc as well, in a 14-minute take in which he can be heard coaching the actors. Also on the disc are Rodriguez's usual "flic school" (among the topics is how scenes were created by merging footage of actors who never actually met), footage of Bruce Willis's band performing in Austin at the time of the shooting, and another Rodriguez cooking school (this time it's breakfast tacos). But the most interesting feature is the "green screen version" of the film: the entire film as it was shot in front of the green screen, sped up to play in only 12 minutes. You can see the actors (in color!) interacting only with the props and each other. Last, there's a DVD-sized complete comic book of The Hard Goodbye.
What's New in the Extended Version? "The Customer Is Always Right" (the opening sequence with Josh Hartnett and Marley Shelton) has no new footage, but now goes straight into the one-minute epilogue with Hartnett and Alexis Bledel that closed the theatrical cut. "The Hard Goodbye" (with Mickey Rourke as "Marv" ) has two new sequences totaling about two minutes: Marv encounters his mother and finds his gun, and talks to Weevil in the club. In "The Big Fat Kill" (with Clive Owen and Benicio Del Toro), some short dialogue is restored, along with another wicked slice by Miho (Devon Aoki)--about a minute total. "That Yellow Bastard" (with Bruce Willis and Jessica Alba) has about 3.5 new minutes: there are more visitors to Hartigan's hospital bed, including his wife and a nurse; Carla Gugino's Lucille character comes to assist Hartigan when he wants to get out of jail (probably the best addition); and Mr. Shlubb and Mr. Klump have some more lines. --David Horiuchi
More Sin City at Amazon.com The Graphic Novels and Books Films by Robert Rodriguez Our interview with Frank Miller The Soundtrack From Graphic Novel to Big Screen Films by guest director Quentin Tarantino
(108 votes)
3.
Robert Rodriguez ("Spy Kids," "Once Upon a Time in Mexico") and comic book icon Frank Miller co-direct "Sin City," based on the series of graphic novels created, written, and illustrated by Miller. "Sin City" is infested with criminals, crooked cops and sexy dames, some searching for vengeance, some for redemption and others, both. The film incorporates storylines from three of Miller's graphic novels including 'Sin City,' which launched the long-running, critically acclaimed series, as well as 'That Yellow Bastard' and 'The Big Fat Kill.' Rodriguez, along with Miller, translated these legendary stories from page to screen by remaining absolutely faithful to the look, feel and dialogue of the books. "Sin City" stars Bruce Willis as Hartigan, a cop with a bum ticker and a vow to protect stripper Nancy (Jessica Alba); Mickey Rourke as Marv, the outcast misanthrope on a mission to avenge the death of his one true love, Goldie (Jaime King), and Clive Owen as Dwight, the clandestine love of Shelley (Brittany Murphy), who spends his nights defending Gail (Rosario Dawson) and her Old Towne girls (Devon Aoki and Alexis Bledel) from Jackie Boy (Benicio Del Toro), a dirty cop with a penchant for violence.
(110 votes)
4.
This Recut & Extended Edition is the ultimate Sin City DVD Collection and features a never-before-seen re-edited version oft he original motion picture, the original theatrical release and extensive brand-new bonus material! The acclaimed hit from director Robert Rodriguez delivers stories straight from the pages of Frank Miller's hip series of Sin City graphic novels...and stars Bruce Willis, Jessica Alba, Mickey Rourke, Jaime King, Clive Own, Brittany Murphy, Rosario Dawson, Devon Aoki, Alexis Bledel, Benicio Del Toro, Elijah Wood, Nick Stahl, Michael Madsen, Carla Cugino and Michael Clarke Duncan.
(107 votes)
5.
Brutal and breathtaking, Sin City is Robert Rodriguez's stunningly realized vision of Frank Miller's pulpy comic books. In the first of three separate but loosely related stories, Marv (Mickey Rourke in heavy makeup) tries to track down the killers of a woman who ended up dead in his bed. In the second story, Dwight's (Clive Owen) attempt to defend a woman from a brutal abuser goes horribly wrong, and threatens to destroy the uneasy truce among the police, the mob, and the women of Old Town. Finally, an aging cop on his last day on the job (Bruce Willis) rescues a young girl from a kidnapper, but is himself thrown in jail. Years later, he has a chance to save her again. Based on three of Miller's immensely popular and immensely gritty books (The Hard Goodbye, The Big Fat Kill, and That Yellow Bastard), Sin City is unquestionably the most faithful comic-book-based movie ever made. Each shot looks like a panel from its source material, and director Rodriguez (who refers to it as a "translation" rather than an adaptation) resigned from the Directors Guild so that Miller could share a directing credit. Like the books, it's almost entirely in stark black and white with some occasional bursts of color (a woman's red lips, a villain's yellow face). The backgrounds are entirely digitally generated, yet not self-consciously so, and perfectly capture Miller's gritty cityscape. And though most of Miller's copious nudity is absent, the violence is unrelentingly present. That may be the biggest obstacle to viewers who aren't already fans of the books and who may have been turned off by Kill Bill (whose director, Quentin Tarantino, helmed one scene of Sin City). In addition, it's a bleak, desperate world in which the heroes are killers, corruption rules, and the women are almost all prostitutes or strippers. But Miller's stories are riveting, and the huge cast--which also includes Jessica Alba, Jaime King, Brittany Murphy, Rosario Dawson, Benicio Del Toro, Elijah Wood, Nick Stahl, Michael Clarke Duncan, Devin Aoki, Carla Gugino, and Josh Hartnett--is just about perfect. (Only Bruce Willis and Michael Madsen, while very well-suited to their roles, seem hard to separate from their established screen personas.) In what Rodriguez hopes is the first of a series, Sin City is a spectacular achievement. --David Horiuchi
(94 votes)
6.
Adapted from Frank Miller's graphic novels, SIN CITY is Robert Rodriguez's striking film noir infused with fantasy, taking place in a world where it is eternally nighttime and everything is drenched in rain and violence. Using a unique combination of silvery black and white digital photography with occasional flashes of bright color for dazzling punctuation, Rodriguez employs green screen techniques and paints a backdrop around each scene, using Miller's co-direction as his cue to match the original setting as closely as possible. Three stories weave together, occasionally overlapping. With lines delivered flatly in the hard-boiled style of Raymond Chandler, these tales are about crime, love, loss, and being preternaturally tough. In the most caustically dramatic segment, Mickey Rourke plays the fearlessly lovestruck Marv, a trenchcoat-clad beast who falls in love with prostitute Goldie (Jaime King) only to find her murdered by a demonic cannibal (Elijah Wood). In another segment, Bruce Willis plays Hartigan, a rogue cop with a "bum ticker" whose goal in life is to save Nancy (Jessica Alba), an innocent stripper, from a murderous rapist (Nick Stahl). The third segment stars Clive Owen as a detective caught between murdered cop Jackie Boy (Benicio Del Toro) and a slew of lethally dangerous vixens lead by Gail (Rosario Dawson). With blood spurting white, yellow, and yes even red; a roster of hot actors that goes on and on; and sound editing that makes you feel like you're the one being punched in the face, SIN CITY is a gift for fans of Miller's art, loaded with style and grit.
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