Movie Review - Sin City: A Dame to Kill For

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For **** (R) Here’s one of those rare sequels without noticeable drop-off, due to the stunning art design that’s still mind-blowing the second time around. Many graphic novels have come to the big screen; none look so much like the print version, or to such compelling advantage. Live actors move in mostly black & white animated settings, periodically accented with splashes of vivid colors. It’s film noir at its noirest.. and I don’t care if that’s not a real word. It still applies, in context.

A handful of narrators take turns as the ones telling their tales of love, loss revenge, etc. on the mean streets of the titular town. The stories overlap to some extent, remaining free of linear constraints. Some references are made to the plot from the first Sin City film, but one needn’t have seen it to catch the drift. Director Robert Rodriguez lined up a deep cast, including Jessica Alba, Bruce Willis, Josh Brolin, Eva Green, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Mickey Rourke, and a slew of other familiar players. New actors play several of the recurring characters (Brolin for Clive Owen; Jamie Chung for Devon Aoki; Dennis Haysbert for the late Michael Clarke Duncan) without missing a beat. Generous quantities of stylized violence and titillation front a jazzy score that would make Bogart wish he’d been able to hang around long enough to see how computer effects could stretch his hallmark genre. That certainly wouldn’t have been his highest aspiration for living longer; Lauren Bacall gets that nod. But films like these still would have been a nice perk.

The plot is little more than a vehicle for Rodriguez - a Quentin Tarantino cohort, who seems to throw himself into the fun side of The Biz with equal gusto - to reprise his artfully-crafted world for an escalated adventure. If you can’t tell by now, I’ll be ready for the third installment whenever he is. That’s partially based on my faith in his having learned when to walk away from the joyless clunkers that limped behind his entertaining first two Spy Kids flicks, and last year’s disappointing sequel, Machete Kills. As spake the prophet(???), Know when to hold ‘em, and when to fold ‘em. (8/15/14)