Sin City: A Dame To Kill For

A Dame For Which To Kill

The wind moans and howls around me. 

It's a restless and rainy night. 

My throat is croaky, like I've swallowed a shotglass of rusty razors. 

I'm standing in front of my local picture house. 

The last one left in this god-forsaken town. 

So many memories. 

So many friends lost. 

So many heartaches. 

Why did I return here? 

Some Yank flick by Robert Rodriguez, I reckon. 

Yeah, might as well spend my night watching it. 

It's either that or drink the pain away. 

Wasting my night watching cat videos on YouTube. 

So cute...but life isn't. 

It's dark, cruel and full of gritty, sullen voice-overs.

Or so Frank Miller would have you believe!

The original Sin City was released back in 2005, with the promise of ground-breaking graphic style, reminiscent of Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow and 300, both released earlier in the year. I spoke in a previous article about how I skipped college to go and see Sin City the day it was released, and my tiny brain was blown apart by the visual style. It became one of my favourite films of that year, despite the clichéd writing style of Frank Miller, the blatant hypocritical, overblown characterisation of the main protagonists as well as his obsession with destroying people's genitals. It just was an awesome film noir, filled with cheesy one-liners and unrealistic laws of physics.

I mean, just look at the yellow bastard...

Flash-forward a few years later, and rumours started emerging from Hollywood about the possibility of a Sin City sequel, potentially starring Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp at the height of their popularity!  My attention was grabbed and my expectations were raised, but the project went nowhere for years, stuck in Hollywood limbo.  I was craving another hard-boiled detective story set in Basin City, but none was being given. Rodriguez continued making his Spy Kids films and Frank Miller tried his hand at adapting another gritty detective comic into another gritty detective film The Spirit, which came and went without making much of an impression. But there was a light at the end of the tunnel of 2013. A teaser trailer was released announcing Sin City: A Dame To Kill For being released in summer of 2014. Despite Depp and Jolie no longer being involved, instead Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Eva Green were cast instead! Two of my personal favourite actors! I was overjoyed! What could possibly go wrong?

My obsession with this man continues to this day...

Similar to the original Sin City, A Dame To Kill For follows three separate, yet intertwining story-lines. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is the cocky, arrogant gambler Johnny, with a broad on each arm and a point to prove. Josh Brolin is the returning damsel-defending Dwight (before his surgery to look like Clive Owen) who gets contacted by former lover Eva Green desperate for his help. And finally Jessica Alba reprises her role as Nancy, the stripper with a heart of gold, who has fallen upon hard times since the death of her one true love and saviour, Bruce Willis. Oh and Mickey Rourke's iconic behemoth Marv manages to make an appearance in all three story-lines, sometimes just visually, other times directly involved.

Rourke never looked better

So since some story-lines of this film occur before the original Sin City, and some after, I was quite confused about when certain parts of A Dame To Kill For were taking place. I'm sure this was so that certain characters who died in the previous film could reappear, but instead, baffled me and make me mentally reassess the film's timeline instead of focus on the action on screen. And I pride myself on usually keeping up to speed with film continuity. It makes watching a Marvel film with me a sodding chore. I'm usually leaning over to my film-watching partner and whispering, “That just happened because...” Don't I sound like a hoot?  

But still, this film's continuity confused me, and I still don't quite understand when some events happened in the grand scale of things.

Whilst the visuals remain mind-blowing and pleasing to the eye, the film just seemed like it was trying too hard to be as cool and suave as it's predecessor. It felt like the cult status of the original Sin City inflated Rodriguez and Miller's ideas of what made their film great. Most fans of the first, such as myself, didn't appreciate the film for it's glorification of misogyny, the repetitive inner-narration or the complicated intertwining story-lines; they just enjoyed some gritty, monochrome silliness that took itself too seriously. The film's unapologetic attitude of 'This is what I am' was the reason it gained so many fans, but after so many years of delayed production, the fans deserve a film that was much better and more cohesive than this.

Complicated, bloated and overreaching, A Dame To Kill For makes something once so effortless appear like a chore, and one that I will not be revisiting again. Who knows, maybe I've just grown up and childish, immature films like Sin City no longer stimulate my brain. 

Ha, ha, 'stimulate'. No, I'm still childish. This just needed to be better.

Rating - 4/10

Yes, that jacket potato is wearing glasses...

Until next time folks, thanks for reading!

If you enjoyed what you read and you'd like to be kept more up to date with my posts, I can be found on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mike-Dunn-Reviews and on Twitter at https://twitter.com/MikeDunnReviews - if you want to help the site grow, give them a 'Like' or a 'Share'!

Top Five Friday: Best Films of 2014 so far...

Ahh September is here.  Before we know it, December will be upon us, and then 2015!  The summer blockbusters are being removed from the screens as we prepare for the kids to return to school.  And most importantly, since it's officially past the half-way point of the year, it's time for me to list my favourite films of the year so far!

Now admittedly, I haven't had chance to visit the cinema and see some films that I really wanted to see over the summer.  Films that have been critically acclaimed, such as Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Frank and Boyhood have left screens before I found time.  Those that have been critically panned, such as Transformers: Age of Extinction, Mrs Brown's Boys D'Movie and Step Up 5: All In, have stuck around a little longer than the rest, but I still haven't found time to watch those either.  So unfortunately, I'm going to rank those that I have seen, and not yet reviewed.

Starting with....

THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL

Director: Wes Anderson

Released: March 7th

Wes Anderson continues his fantastic streak of memorable films, with another set of kooky and iconic characters, one-liners and mishaps.  In The Grand Budapest Hotel, we are told the story of how elderly hotel owner, Zero Moustafa, came to own the titular establishment and why he is so against the idea of shutting it down as it decays around him.  We follow the younger Zero as he teams up with the hotel's most prolific and dedicated concierge, Monsieur Gustave H. (played with fantastic glee by Ralph Fiennes) as he tries to prove himself innocent after being framed for a murder.  

Completely madcap and enjoyable, I couldn't take the smile off my face whilst watching this delightful old-fashioned adventure.  The music and cinematography are top notch (as is Anderson's standard) and leading man Fiennes is so dashing and charismatic, I can't imagine another actor taking the role.  He lives the role of Monsieur Gustave and truly brings him to life.  It was a real delight to enter another of Anderson's quirky and inventive alternative realities.

BAD NEIGHBOURS

Director: Nicholas Stoller

Released: May 3rd

Much like 21 Jump St. in 2012, I expected Bad Neighbours to be funny, but I didn't expect it to be this funny.  The story follows a new parent-couple Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne, as they battle their new next door neighbours, a University fraternity, headed by jock idiot Zac Efron.  The film begins as most of Rogen's films do; crash sex scene followed by drug-taking scenes, inappropriate conversations taking place in front of babies, and lots of prat falls and slapstick.  But surprisingly, it felt pretty-much new.

Whilst the slapstick and the drug-references do their job, the true surprise came from the effort put into fully fleshing out these two sets of rivals.  The adults see the fraternity as a reminder that they are no longer cool and young anymore, whereas the fraternity see a 'Ghost of Christmas Future' in the boring, old couple next door.  This is especially true with Zac Efron, who gives a stellar comedy performance as Teddy, the frat's president.  He becomes obsessed with destroying the couple's happiness as he knows he has little academic future ahead of him and this is his only influence on the world around him.  Sounds malevolent and seedy, but it's all good fun as some of the pranks are incredibly funny.  Definitely worth a watch.

THE WIND RISES

Director: Hayao Miyazaki

Released: May 9th

Released as Hayao Miyazaki's final film, The Wind Rises is a fictionalised biography of the aeroplane engineer Jiro Horikoshi before and during the Second World War.  It might not sound like an enthralling storyline, but yet again Studio Ghibli manage to turn the mundane into brilliance.

This was one of the most touching cinema experiences I have had in a long time.  The beauty of Studio Ghibli is evident in every frame and whilst the Jiro isn't as relatable as previous ones like Spirited Away's Chihiro or Howl's Moving Castle's Grandma Sophie, his story is always interesting, especially when he reluctantly begins helping the Nazis due to their friendship with Japan.

The entire film is based around airplanes, and as such, you can truly see the genius Miyazaki's hand in almost every moment.  This marks the end of an era in animation, and I highly recommend you searching out this film on DVD and all of his earlier work.  You will not be disappointed.

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

Director: James Gunn

Released: August 1st

I was so nervous when I saw the trailer for Guardians.  Nervous and excited.  How could Marvel, and especially Disney, bet so much money and reputation on this story of relatively-unknown alien mercenaries, battling in galaxies far, far away?  It was either insanity or genius.

Turns out both.

This was such a crazy and wild adventure, it just made me want to watch it again and again.  The story follows Peter Quill, AKA StarLord, a human abducted and raised by a bunch of renegade alien pirate smugglers.  The self-titled StarLord (played by Chris Pratt) quickly finds himself enthralled in a struggle between powerful warlords over a mysterious orb.  He teams up with a green-skinned assassin (Zoe Saldana), a tattooed headcase (Dave Bautista), a giant human-like walking tree (voiced by Vin Diesel) and a talking raccoon (voiced by Bradley Cooper).

See what I mean by possible insanity?  But it works.  The director James Gunn has history with the surreal, working on films such as Slither and Super, so he manages to create such a believable world that the crazy hijinx that follow feel possible.  The characters are truly three-dimensional, even if the walking tree-man can only say "I. Am. Groot." and every other character's middle name is 'The' (Korath The Pursuer/Drax The Destroyer etc.)  They have back-stories, aims, dreams, flaws, and therefore feel like real people.  The most surprising thing about this film is former WWE wrestler Dave Bautista, who has the most impressive screen-presence and delivers a very unexpected, and yet fantastic performance.

Also, Lee Pace performing as the quasi-Marilyn Manson villain Ronan The Accuser is actually terrifying.  Full plaudits to the man as he could have hammed up the performance and delivered one akin to a pantomime villain, but he truly gets under your skin as a malevolent force and a formidable opponent to the titular Guardians.  Definitely the blockbuster of the summer.

HER

Director: Spike Jonze

Released: February 14th (awww...)

And finally, the film that has impressed me the most this year.  Spike Jonze's her really spoke to me and not because I especially related to Joaquin Phoenix's Theodore or his strife, but the film doesn't patronise or try to scare you.  Instead it almost cuddles up to you as a friend and shows you a warning of our collective future and our relationship with technology.  It just calmly offers advice and tells you it's going to be OK.

Theodore is a professional writer living in 2025 Los Angeles.  The newest upgrade to his phone's operating system contains an artificial intelligence, named Samantha (voiced by Scarlett Johansson).  Samantha is a technological breakthrough, having the ability to learn from experience, adapting and evolving in the process.  Through the course of the film, Theodore begins a relationship with the Samantha A.I., causing a rift within his circle of friends.

It's not your typical romantic comedy, and I feel that's why I loved this film so much.  You spend the film watching Theodore fail in real-life relationships, but succeed in his relationship with Samantha.  You desire for them to be together by the end of the film, and despite it's alternative nature, it never feels weird.  Phoenix plays the lovable loser so well that you can't help but want the best for him.  The supporting cast of Amy Adams and Chris Pratt provide essential commentary on the central relationship, speaking for the audience on several occasions, but Theodore and Samantha's partnership is the film's key message.

As well as impressive performances, the film's style of design blew me away in it's subtlety.  The fashion of the future is recognisable, and yet retro; the technology is advanced, and yet accessible.  I found it so intriguing and obviously cared for.  I just loved everything about it.  Especially it's views on our over-dependence and obsession with technology.

I have recommended her to friends and had very different reactions to it.  Some have appreciated it, some found it depressing, some have been impressed and some have hated it.  Whilst I feel like it is my favourite, I understand it isn't for everyone.  But I still think you should give it a go, because you never know, you might love it as much as I do.

Until next time folks, thanks for reading!

If you enjoyed what you read and you'd like to be kept more up to date with my posts, I can be found on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mike-Dunn-Reviews and on Twitter at https://twitter.com/MikeDunnReviews - if you want to help the site grow, give them a 'Like' or a 'Share'!