Sin City: A Dame to Kill For Reviews

One of the graphic novels of Sin City, a collection of short stories involving major and minor characters from throughout the books, is named Booze, Broads, and Bullets. Those three words boil down Sin City to its most basic components, and this reduction is evident in this long gestating sequel. A sequel that’s so bad that it makes you call into question your enjoyment of the original.

 

Sure, there’s a few moments where everything is flowing along nicely, but they’re incredibly rare. The film is best when it sticks to the older narratives and far away from anything creator Frank Millar has recently penned. The ultimate failure of A Dame to Kill For is that more than half of it is occupied by original material, and it only underscores how far Millar’s writing has fallen in recent years.

 

A Dame to Kill For is still visually eye-popping, but it’s a world of artifice where sex, violence, and death no longer have any weight or consequences. This is pulpy noir on steroids, and it leaves behind the more important aspects of that genre’s effectiveness: mystery, danger, interesting characters and quotable dialogue. Sin City had real conflicts powering through its narratives, and it took the occasional moments of silence to really power through the visual audacity and mayhem to leave behind something real.

 

The problems start with the opening short, a patented ludicrous thing taken verbatim from Booze, Broads, and Bullets called “Just Another Saturday Night.” It finds Marv waking up in the middle of a car crash and retracing his steps to figure out how he got his infamous black jacket. It could be fun, but even the short story was more concerned with “cool” looking moments of violence than telling a coherent story, so it translates over. Of course, when you use three of the best storylines in one film that does tend to leave behind some of the weaker ones for a sequel, except the title story is one of the strongest.

 

So it was on the printed page, so it is in the film. Sin City: A Dame to Kill For is frankly sloppy until we get to that particular story, and then things start gelling for a brief period of time. Thank Eva Green and Josh Brolin for finding the right tone of dead-eyed seriousness and joyful kitsch in their line readings as femme fatale and lovable brute. Not even the woefully bad makeup on Stacy Keach and Mickey Rourke can distract from the fun and brutality on display here, but that vibe doesn’t last long enough.

 

We’re quickly thrown back to Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s wasted talents in a generic tale of card sharks and a duplicitous Senator. Senator Roarke (Powers Boothe, still dripping oily menace) was an overheated character in the comics, but the two original stories orbiting around him and adding to his evil and powerful overreach transform him into a comical, borderline ridiculously corrupt caricature. Even worse is how much of a livewire, quirky actor like Gordon-Levitt is reduced to another lovable brute, Lady Gaga is sacked with a generic bit-part, and genuine weirdo Christopher Lloyd isn’t given enough to do.

 

Then we end with the much-teased Nancy revenge story, a storyline that’s been promised since the first one was such a surprise hit. It turns out to be a limp thing that attaches itself to That Yellow Bastard but cannot summon up quite as much pathos and earned empathy as that story did. Jessica Alba is there, once again wearing a bad blond wig and playing a stripper that doesn’t actually take anything off, Bruce Willis cameos, and Marv shows up again. It’s more of things people liked in the first one but rearranged in a way that suggests that Millar’s lost the plot on what it was that people liked about these original stories in the first place.

 

And that’s what lingers in the mind while watching A Dame to Kill For. Whereas the first film was equally as violent and sexual, it knew when to pause the voiceover narration, the quips, the barrage of bullets long enough to marinate in the atmospherics on display and allows its actors to display some personality. A Dame to Kill For neuters those strengths in favor of doing the opposite, so it all looks the same but doesn’t feel the same. It somehow feels even flatter than the paper the stories were originally printed on.

Like everyone else, I was eagerly expecting this sequel and, after almost a decade, it was finally coming up so I was genuinely excited. However, when it was released, it turned out to be a flop and received some poor reviews. To be honest, it seemed hard to believe since the first installment was such a blast. Eventually, I have to admit that the critics were right as the whole thing was indeed just terribly disappointing. I mean, right from the start, with the small story starring Mickey Rourke, it felt all wrong. Indeed, they really messed up his make-up this time, Marv looked awful, way too big and at least 10 or even 20 years older than in the previous installment when he should look actually younger. Above all, the story was rather boring and the performance by Rourke, while he was amazing in ‘Sin City’, was just terribly weak and made Marv a real joke. Eventually, except for ‘A Dame to Kill For’ which is one of the best stories in the comic-book series, all the other stories were just underwhelming. The most bewildering one was maybe the last one called ‘Nancy’s Last Dance’, not only was it barely entertaining but, above all, it gave some major continuity issues with the rest of the stories. It was really stupid and, in my opinion, they gave us this tale just so that Mickey Rourke, Jessica Alba and Bruce Willis, arguably the biggest stars in this franchise, had a little more screen time. Hell, even ‘A Dame to Kill For’ which was supposed to be really awesome, didn’t really impress me either. Anyway, to conclude, it is hard to believe that they took almost 10 years to deliver this, it looks like ‘Sin City’, it moves like ‘Sin City’, but it sure ain’t at the same level of this modern classic.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Well, it was a long wait for this one! I never read any of the comics, but I love the first Sin City movie: its spectacular blend of hyper-violence, snappy character actions and dazzling visual style is like nothing I've seen before or since.
That unique atmosphere is almost perfectly recaptured with this sequel; I just can't get enough of the world this franchise presents. :) The characters are just as easy to latch onto as they attempt to fight the injustice in this corrupt hellhole of a city.
Sadly, though, the stories themselves just aren't as interesting this time around, and in some cases they seem to go on a bit too long. In the first movie, each story was just the perfect length, and the film even bookended itself really well, which made it feel satisfactorily complete. But this one feels very lopsided and not quite as fulfilling.
Several characters return from the first movie, but a couple of them are really distractingly recast. I can understand recasting the Manute character, since obviously Michael Clarke Duncan is sadly no longer with us, but why Dwight and Miho as well?
I was also pretty disappointed that nothing more is revealed about the mysterious man from the first one played by Josh Hartnett.
But overall, I was only too happy to return to this unique world and get a second dose. :) This sequel is still good, but it's not as good.

My rating: 70%

Oh I have been waiting to see this for nine long nerve wrecking years. This film is long overdue. Due to the period of time it took to dish this out one actor had to be replaced sadly (R.I.P. Michael Clarke Duncan), one replaced due to pregnancy, and a third had to be replaced due to prior engagements. I did think everyone still pulled off their characters well and I enjoyed the new additions. Sadly time takes peoples' interest away and this hasn't been doing so good for that reason. I however thought it was a great follow up even if it is quite belated. I loved how even actors of minor characters made quick appearances throughout the duration of the film. I do think some characters needed a bit more screen time than they were given, but maybe we will see more of them if they make another one.

Marv still has to be Sin City's coolest citizen. Miho although played by a new actress was still brutal awesomeness. I thought Josh Brolin was a great choice for Dwight and really pulled off the tragedy of the character in my opinion. Dennis Haysbert was alright, but he didn't live up to Michael Clarke Duncan's version of Manute. Eva Green and Juno Temple love their bodies and so do we. Green barely wears any clothes throughout pretty much the whole movie. I would be screwed if I ever came across Ava if she were real and looked like Eva Green. That is definitely a plus for me lol. Jessica Alba doesn't have to get nude to make you squirm. She just has that vibe that draws you in and the seductive dancing to keep you entangled. All the performances in general were just great and the characters were portrayed as I liked.

I thought the action was excellent. The cinematography was excellent and it felt like I was watching the comic like it were a 3-D pop-up book. Of course the CGI was much better than the previous installment, but yet it still felt like it matched with it perfectly. They threw in a lot of little homages to the previous film that I caught. As you would expect from Sin City all the stories are tragic and brutal. The world is a crappy place sometimes, but I would have to say Sin City is one of the worst. I really think people should forgive the delay of time it took to make this and just go see it. It's quite fun and enjoyable. It stays true to the graphic novels as I remember. It was executed really well and was a good watch. I approve.