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The Frank Miller/Robert Rodriguez collaborative movie Sin City adapts three of the Sin City stories, The Hard Goodbye, That Yellow Bastard and The Big, Fat Kill. The film's narration moves between two of the stories but for the most part, follows the stories from beginning to end. And this has to be the best adaptations I have ever seen, the scenes are blocked right out of the comic pages and the lines are directly from the original text. It is indeed the comic brought to life.

The movie begins with a seemingly romantic scene that ends with a jolt. Then moves into That Yellow Bastard, Detective Haritgan (Bruce Willis), who of course, on his last day before retirement, makes the mistake of rescuing a little girl from a serial killer. The killer is connected and Haritgan's life is over, ruined, and he is jailed. Years later he is released and the story of vengeance is continued. Bruce Willis, Jessica Alba, Nick Stahl and Powers Boothe are outstanding, making the comic pages flesh in black and white with splashes of color.

Then, into my favorite Sin City, The Hard Goodbye. Marv's tale of lost love and revenge. Marv is a damaged, seemingly indestructible street fighter on parole and low on his meds. He meets Goldie, a breathtakingly beautiful blonde, who by the morning is dead in his bed. The police arrive without warning with a tac-squad and Marv's hard trail of finding out the truth and vengeance begins. Later on he says, "I been killing my way to the truth," and man is that true! Marv blazes a trail from the dirty and gritty alleys of Old Town to the men that actually control Basin City and rule like kings or gods. As he tells Wendy (Goldie's twin sister), "I fixed 'em, I fixed 'em good Goldie". Marv is played by Mickey Rourke and he is Marv 100 percent. Elijah Wood is the simply eerie and uber-creepy Kevin, Frank Miller himself plays an evil priest and Rutger Hauer is Cardinal Roark, sickening evil incarnate.

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Finally, the last arc, The Big, Fat Kill, the second story with dark hero, Dwight (Clive Owen). The first (that hopefully will be made some day) was A Dame To Kill For. The story is Dwight vs. a bunch of toughs lead by his new girlfriend's ex, Jackie Boy (Benicio Del Toro). Dwight, in a very memorable scene, runs Jackie Boy and his thugs off. He follows them to Old Town where they are looking for trouble, to hurt or kill someone.

They of course find it, since the girls of Old Town, in Dwight's words: "If you have the money and treat them right, they'll make your night heaven." The other side of the coin is if you don't, they will kill you. And Jackie and his boys make the cut, the final one. And the shocker? They were cops.

The truce between the cops and Old Town is broken, unless this is covered up, war will begin. Well, Dwight and the Old Town Girls have a wild night and final showdown is over-the-top; the last word in street justice.

Welp, if this is your first trip to Sin City, I hope it is not your last. A perfect adaptation and the best movie I can remember seeing in ages. And almost all the books are out in graphic novels available at reasonable prices (check the links on the titles above). A perfect 10 and I will see this movie many times before its gone.

Till next time,
OGRE3K

Related Links:
Frank Miller fansite