here it is folks, the review even I have been waiting for. Frank Miller's Sin City is just as good as I thought it would be, and a faithful representation of the gritty graphic novels that inspiried it. definatly not one to take the kids to, but one to go to if your girlfriend owes you a movie after making you sit through hitch (you know who you are).

sin city revolves around three main stories, with a short story opening and closing the movie, it begins with the opening of "that yellow bastard". bruce willis is in true tough guy form as hartigan, a cop about to retire with one last job to do. nick stahl does a very good job as the rapist/yellow bastard. you really love to hate him. after the first half of that we jump to marv, my personal favorite, as he tries to figure out who killed his beloved goldie. this is the story i got most involved in, mainly because i hadn't read the graphic novel before and had no idea what was going to happen. you feel sympathetic to marv as he explains his "condition" and are behind him until the end. frank miller himself even has a cameo in this story, so watch for him.

then we jump to dwight, a tough guy who is trying to do nothing more than protect innocent women. he's on the trail of jackie boy, a cop with a hot temper, and in this story we get introduced to the coolest set piece in the movie. the neighborhood of old town. it's translated pannel for pannel from the comics, and watching the live versions of all the hookers that run the section of sin city is something i'm still shocked at. i can't believe they pulled off hookers with guns taking the law into their own hands. anyway i'm getting off track. so dwight and the girls from old town fight off the mob. this story also gets some guest direction from quentin tarantino, his scene fits very well even though it breaks from the narritive style just a bit.

we then come full circle and finish with the conclusion of "that yellow bastard". the ending of this will make almost anyone squirm just a little. and jessica alba's performance isn't half bad. although is a stipper really that hard to act out? before you know it the credits roll and you've just got your ass kicked for close to two hours.

now sin city isn't perfect. some of the dialogue is a little wooden, and some of the actors (particularly michael madsen which makes me sad) didn't bring their A games. the cinematography is amazing though. readers of the books will be able to pick out key frames translated perfectly, and the overall style of the movie is right on. one little thing about the music. there's a scene were bruce willis walks into a bar that's played to some fast techno song. that's just not sin city, and doesn't even fit the rest of the music in the film. which excells at adding to the atmosphere of the film.

yeah, i liked sin city...a lot. i'm very happy that someone had the guts to take this one all the way to the end. watching the theaters (i saw it twice) full of people all wondering where this movie came from made me laugh. it's violent, it's an atmopsheric gold mine, and it's worth seeing. make sure you see this one, it's the best movie i've seen so far this year. i give it an A

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