SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR (R )
Released by Dimension Films
Review by Adam Mast
It’s been nearly a decade since Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez brought the pages of the graphic novel SIN CITY to the big screen. Why it took the Austin, Texas based auteur and the iconic graphic novelist so long to finally get the follow-up, A DAME TO KILL FOR, off the ground is beyond me, but here it is.
SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR weaves three intersecting pulpy comic bookish tales together and sets them to a stylized backdrop called Basin City. In the first story, an extremely lucky gambler (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) takes on a ruthless mob boss (played by Powers Booth) in a fierce game of poker. In the second tale, a hard nosed private investigator (played by Josh Brolin—taking over for a departing Clive Owen) is seduced by a manipulating ex-flame (Eva Green). And in the third and final vignette, an alcoholic stripper (Jessica Alba) hopes to exact revenge on the killer who’s responsible for the death of the only man she ever loved (played by Bruce Willis). As an added bonus, fans will be happy to know that Mickey Rourke’s brutish brawler Marv makes a bone crunching return, and happily, he clocks in quite a bit more screen time this time around.
While there are plenty of familiar faces in A DAME TO KILL FOR (i.e. Alba, Boothe, Willis, Rourke, Rosario Dawson, etc.), there are plenty of new characters thrown into the mix as well. In addition to newbie SIN CITY players Levitt, Green, and Brolin, this installment also features Christopher Meloni as a loose cannon of a cop, Jermey Piven as his motor mouth partner, Dennis Haysbert (filling in for the late Michael Clarke Duncan) as a towering bodyguard, a hilarious but sorely underused Christopher Lloyd as a low life junkie, and a spirited Stacy Keach as a character so strange, that he’s worthy of his own movie.
A DAME TO KILL FOR is far uglier than than its predecessor. The gambling tale in particular goes in a direction that is somewhat unexpected but Levitt’s character motivation allows for an intriguing payoff. A DAME TO KILL FOR is also very sexual in nature and it should be noted that the gorgeous Eva Green spends a good portion of this movie naked. But don’t let the lack of clothes fool you. Green is a ton of fun in this movie and it goes far beyond the nudity. This is an extension of her scene stealing work in 300: RISE OF AN EMPIRE. She takes the quintessential femme fatale role to towering heights.
While many will be quick to dismiss this film as misogynistic, I will remind you all that the title of the movie is SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR. It is true, that the women in this flick are whores, strippers, and sadomasochists but it should also be noted that the men are heartless mobsters, adulterers, and junkies. Like I said, this is SIN CITY.
A DAME TO KILL FOR is far more campy than it is pulpy and while the shift from high camp to ugly doesn’t always work, I found this trip to Sin City to be entertaining…In a sick, twisted, and perverse sort of way. It helps that you have committed performers like Mickey Rourke, Eva Green, and Powers Boothe tearing into their hilariously over the top roles with absolute vigor. Even a usually dull Alba breathes momentary life into her tortured stripper, Nancy.
A DAME TO KILL FOR lacks the freshness and the exhilaration factor that came with 2005’s SIN CITY and clearly, there are stretches here that are repetitious (the stripping and twerking montages are more excessive than Green’s nudity) and anti-climactic (the ending of the picture is abrupt and disappointing.) Still, there should be enough stylish bravado (once again, Rodriguez uses Miller’s source material as a storyboard), and campy humor here to keep fans of this this dark comic-book world happy. Side note; See this one in 3D. It’s worth the extra money!
Check out the Trailer here:
