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Review by: Jack Foley | Rating:
Two
IN A recent interview for his film, Hostage,
Bruce Willis is quoted as saying: Wait to you see Sin
City, it's going to blow your mind. You'll go back and see
it three times, it's so good."
Well, the film opened in America on Friday, April 1, and despite
coming out on April Fool's Day, it would appear that Willis won't
be made to look one in terms of critical reaction.
The film drew largely positive feedback from critics who were
not only impressed by its distinctive look, but also because of
the unapologetically gritty nature of proceedings.
The Chicago Tribune, for instance, wrote that
it's 'a movie of such high style, done in such a spirit of electrifying
fun and creativity, that it kisses the blood right off its own
violent hands'.
While Rolling Stone felt that 'Sin City is a
hard, cold, relentless assault. It's also something Hollywood
seems to have given up on: a bold, uncompromised vision'.
The Washington Post wrote that 'Rodriguez and
company have so faithfully captured Miller's essence, there's
something beautiful about the whole thing. It's an act of inspired
reverence'.
And Newsday opined: "Sometimes it all seems
as schematic as a theme park attraction. Mostly, though, the movie
comes across like the fever dream of a smart, put-upon adolescent
who'd been up all night watching every black-and-white crime movie
made since the sound era." |
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Strong, too, was Arizona
Republic, which felt that 'every now and then, a movie
does more than gamely defend the status quo but actually advances
the art form. So it is with Sin City, a stunning, brutal vision
of a city gone mad'.
And the New York Daily News wrote: "Mixing
live-action with computer-generated images, it looks like the
novels, talks and bleeds like the novels, is as muscular and voluptuous
as the novels -- and it leaves you breathless as only a movie
can."
Not so positive, however, was the likes of Entertainment
Weekly, which felt that it becomes 'so seduced by the
visual possibilities of sin that style becomes its own vice'.
And the Denver Post, which lamented that 'this
big-screen treatment of Miller's graphic novels is a soft- core
marathon of stylized mayhem, flesh-pot excess and cinematic pretense'.
But the San Francisco Chronicle was much more
positive, noting that 'to remember Sin City hours later is to
remember from a different part of the brain that remembers conventional
movies'.
While Variety stated that 'Miller's world of
rough customers living on the wild side possesses a sordid allure,
which the directors dazzlingly deliver to the screen'.
And Filmcritic.com wrote that it is 'a meticulously-crafted
weapon of a movie that will please, disgust, and inspire loyalty
among comic fans and strong-stomached general audiences alike'.
The Seattle Times, however, rounds this overview
up with the comment: "Miller's many fans are likely to hail
this as a masterpiece. Rarely has an artist in one medium been
so loyally served by another."
Sin City will open in UK cinemas on June 3.
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