Movie Review: Sin City: A Dame to Kill For
What We Liked
What We Didn't Like
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For is the long awaited sequel to Sin City (2005), a film which grossed over $158 million worldwide and became a fan favorite in no small part due to a visual style that bleeds neo-noir like Frank Miller’s artwork itself. Some have said that it is among the most faithful comic book adaptations ever made. Having the original author and the artist of the comic aboard as the co-director and writer didn’t hurt a bit, clearly. Miller and Robert Rodriguez once again team up to direct the sequel. Frank Miller is the writer (and comic book legend). Sin City: A Dame to Kill For also boasts the return of many cast members. Something you might not expect given the nine-year-gap between films.
As with the original Sin City, this one is a collection of short, hard-boiled crime films all intertwined together. Sort Raymond Chandler meets Miller with a splash of Rodriguez day-glow CGI all wrapped up in a bundle of attitude and hyper violence. We get two adaptations and two brand new stories here this time, as opposed to 100 percent adaptations last time around, which is a nice treat for long-time Miller fans.
The film begins with “Just Another Saturday Night,” which features Marv (Mickey Rourke) struggling to recall what just happened to him as he wakes up in a daze amidst a car crash and a dead body. Imagine that, Marv with a dead body. Situation normal in bad old Basin City (which all the inhabitants call Sin City), Marv has a condition you see. Next up is “A Dame to Kill For” featuring Dwight (Josh Brolin) who is a tough PI in a rough town. Yet he cannot resist Ava Lord (Eva Green) who waltzes back into his life after having ripped it apart only four years ago. Dwight, much like Phillip Marlowe himself, cannot stay away from a damsel in distress, particularly this one. He knows she is no damn good but it doesn’t matter.
So Dwight finds himself in deep emotional waters. Not exactly a good place for a tough guy. Naturally he investigates, gets Marv to join him on a B&E and then proceeds to get caught. Marv mostly goes out of loyalty to Dwight but the chance to mix it up with Manute (Dennis Haysbert) might have been too much for him to resist – it’s an alpha male thing. Things go downhill from there for Dwight. He does get to re-visit Oldtown though – home of the whores of Sin City. His old flame Gail (Rosario Dawson) even manages to keep Mijo (Jamie Chung) from killing him for dropping by uninvited, for old time’s sake. Eventually, Dwight has to find a way to settle accounts with Ava, the ultimate femme fatale, and that means it gets bloody – bloody fun indeed.
The third story is a new one entitled, “The Long, Bad Night.” This one features Johnny (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) as a ultra-lucky gambler with an axe to grind with Senator Roark (Powers Boothe). Johnny’s plan for revenge involves taking Roark down at the senator’s own high-stakes poker game. Of course, luck always runs out.
Eva Green in “Sin City: A Dame to Kill For.”
The final story is another new one. “Nancy’s Last Dance” picks up years after Nancy (Jessica Alba) was rescued, for the second time, by Hartigan (Bruce Willis) from Roark Jr (Nick Stahl). At the end of, “That Yellow Bastard,” in the original movie Hartigan commits suicide in order to protect Nancy from further trouble from the powerful Roark family. It was his only move left. Sadly, Nancy cannot forgive Hartigan for it. The pain of his loss is too deep, more so than the bottom of a bottle. Nancy comes to a decision about what she must do and puts her life on the exact dark path that Hartigan tried to save her from. With Marv at her side, Nancy pursues vengeance with an unholy delight. Only blood can quench the pain.
All four tales are enjoyable. The gambling power-play story is clearly the weakest of the lot and probably should have been left out. But “A Dame to Kill For” really lives up to its name and is perhaps the best homage to film noir and Chandler that I have ever seen. The stylized black and white images with pops of color are handles expertly in Sin City: A Dame to Kill For. Rodriguez has kept the two films wonderfully consistent with a formula that works. Honestly, I could watch a new Sin City movie every week if it were possible to create them that fast.
Steven Gahm
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