Sin City

     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. <td align="center"> <br> <span class="tiny">Read our interview with Frank Miller. </td></tr> 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.

Comment:
    I bought used and the quality was better than expected. It came with comic book in new condition. I was very pleased. Sin City is one of my favorite movies of the 2000's. I bought the 1-Disc DVD back in 2005 and was satisfied enough at the time just because I owned the movie. However, after purchasing this Blu-Ray, I will never watch the movie on DVD ever again. The clarity is much better, colors pop, and you couldn't ask for a better audio track. As for supplements: there are two discs with two different cuts of the movie, and a wealth of features on the making of the movie. If you love this movie and are still not sold on upgrading to Blu-Ray: This disc will change your mind. Highly Recommended. You already know the movie so all I can say is that the Blu-Ray has a much richer dynamic range, so buy it. I loved it on regular DVD but waited to get the special edition because I knew the Blu Ray would eventually come out. Well it was worth the wait I have the Theatrical version and the special edition . The sound and visual quality are incredible. This is a must buy movie for people that are fans of Frank Miller, Robert Rodriguez, and Quentin Tarantino. Buy it.!!!!