Posted on 04/04/2005 5:20:31 AM PDT by Happy2BMe
As news of Pope John Paul II's death dominated the weekend, moviegoers appear to have vindicated recent accusations that America is plagued by what religious radicals call a death culture—a charge lobbed by President George W. Bush in the wake of the Terry Schiavo case—by flocking to the ultra-violent Sin City.
A mostly monochromatic, digitally-rendered noir picture adapted from comic books by Frank Miller (Robocop 2) and co-directed by Robert Rodriguez (Spy Kids) and Miller, Sin City gorged on a gluttonous $28.1 million weekend estimate at 3,230 locations. Pre-release industry tracking was comparable to Constantine, another R-rated comic book adaptation, which opened to $29.8 million in February and has made $73.7 million so far.
(Excerpt) Read more at boxofficemojo.com ...
"Didn't Pay For Color Rendering Because We're Greedy"
I am a big fan of noir and my only experience with Frank Miller was "The Dark Knight Returns." I was not disappointed with the movie one bit. I was impressed with all of the recognizable names. Even the ones playing smallish roles. Michael Madsen, Rutger Hauer, Powers Boothe.
Mickey Rourke's portrayal of a vicious, blood lusting, relentless killer on a rampage was brilliant.
I truly enjoyed this movie and it is my must buy list when the DVD comes out.
Well, not exactly.
It sounds/looks like its only audience would be those suffering from arrested development.
Yes it does. Actually I do all I can to not support Hollywood. Going to a movie is not on the first 4 pages of my "to do" list.
Comic movie ping!
Ping!
Well, it's a matter of individual taste. I was more interested in the visual style than the plot, which frankly, wasn't very strong to begin with. By no means a perfect film, but not all that bad either.
I never considered Marv a relentless, blood lusting criminal. He was a man of circumstances. A big man out of place and time, hounded by corrupt police, framed by corrupt politicos and ultimately a man in a deep philosophical and moral quandary not of his making. In the world that is Sin City there is no recourse to a just Judicial system as all Justice is corrupted from the morally bankrupt politicians, and Church, to a police force that acts as a private army for those in power. Marv had little choice but to become a killer to exact Justice, and not merely revenge, for his murdered Love. Even when we learn that Marv had been in prison before, he leaves little doubt he had been placed there because he was doing the right thing. In fact every character of conscious in the movie had served or served time in Prison in the film and each intimated that they had fallen afoul of the legal system for doing the right things. Bruce Willis' character's only crime was that he saved the little girl from the Senators pedophile son. The story could almost be ripped out of the headlines today in some of our more violent inner cities.
The film asks the question where do you turn when everything has become corrupt the answer is you must find the will to act within yourself even when the world calls you a villain. I think some of you missed the point Frank Miller was making. He did not glorify the baseness of man in Sin City he showed that base men could do noble things in the absence of the rule of law.
(I will admit they did those things in a gruesome manner)
The writing was great--very 50's film noirish--which happens to be one of my favorite genres. The Mickey Rourke character was easily my favorite. As for Jessica Alba-she's a bit underused but she doesn't seem to have nearly the screen presence that even Rosario Dawson has. She was great.
I called Marv a bloodlusting criminal because on the surface, that is what he was. He actually had a heart of gold and had an immense loyalty to those he called his friends. But violence was his element. He relished in it.
When he realized that meny people were going to die before he justice for Goldie's murder what had he embraced that fact! The line, "These are the bad days! The all or nothing days! They are back!" That kind of summed it up for Marv.
Nicely put. When judicial recourse has been corrupted, good men have few options for justice - and fully expect severe punishment for crossing the corrupt.
No question this is a dark, dark movie. But, I don't think it was so much nihilistic as existential. That's the essence of a graphic novel--the artist creates their own reality with it's own rules. And there are rules in Sin City, even morals. The child molester is reviled and (spoiler alert) . . . . castrated twice. The only really nihilistic characters are the bad guys. All of which meet justified, albeit gruesome, ends. Several characters give their lives for others.
Of course there's are the usual hollywood stereotypes. The most evil characters are clergy. All the hookers, except for a couple, have hearts of gold.
If you have a problem with violence don't see it. I thought it was a good film.
It's from Dimension.
That means the Weinstein Brothers.
They are HYPE monsters
to begin with. Now
they've split with Disney, but took
Dimension with them.
They'll use all their HYPE
power to get a profit
because they're starting
a new company.
The media shills will play
cause the Weinsteins pay.
When the movie said Marv belonged on a medieval battlefield they were right. He was a Knight, a Dark Knight (I know it is Frank Miller). I loved the internal struggle. He was a man who had been told he was wrong so often that he continually had to reassure himself that what he was doing was right and true. Imagine the backstory. Marv had been put on drugs to control delusions, but what were his delusions? I can imagine a liberal prison psychologist horrified that Marv used violence against those who would commit crimes. Putting Marv on medication to control him to make him more gentle to make Marv forget that the world was decadent and that it needed a hero.
We see in the movie Marv becomes more and more certain of his actions the longer he is off his medication. The movie confuses that point a bit because Marv uses the pain killers at his parole officers home but that is not the medicine he has been given to control his "delusions"
I thought so to until my husband read what is in the movie, we won't be going
.
Bingo
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