Review

The final word in comic-to-big-screen adaptations, Sin City, based on a series of Frank Miller's cult graphic novels, is a scorching entertainment that combines state-of-the-art visual design, the very best of pulp fiction, and a storytelling technique that is so self-assured you can feel the exhiliration of one's craft in every scene. Co-directed by Rodriguez and author Miller, the film is a gorgeously vibrant tribute to noir and the glib-talking, hard-boiled, black-and-white narratives of Chandler, Fuller and Spillane. Interweaving three tales, Sin City is set in a nocturnal metropolis where men talk with their guns and the femmes are either fatale or, if not totally innocent, at least sinless at heart. Grabbing the lion's share of the plot and stealing the film from its accomplished cast in the segment "The Hard Goodbye" is Rourke, who as the disfigured hit man Marv transcends the tough-guy clichés to create a wholly original noir anti-hero who, like so many, lives by his own ethical code, but refreshingly twists the boundaries of what is both tough and ethical for his own purposes. Marv's relentless search for a prostitute's murderer is framed by stories of an honest cop (Willis) caught in a maelstrom of corruption and depravity ("That Yellow Bastard"), and a dishonest cop (Del Toro) who sets the stage for the battle of Old Town (where the prostitutes live and rule) between its protectors and underworld ex-bosses ("The Big Fat Kill"). Violent, savagely funny and perversely cynical, Sin City is a jolt of adrenaline for movie fans fatigued from serious cases of sequel-itis, remake-osis and formula-ania.

 -- David Bleiler