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Geekscape Reviews: Sin City: A Dame to Kill For

by S.J. BorgerAugust 22, 2014

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, is the sequel to the gritty, perverse, irreverent and occasionally funny Sin City, created by the iconic graphic novelist Frank Miller (300, The Spirit) and directed by Robert Rodriguez. Both movies live in the black-and-white, highly stylized, extremely violent oeuvre both Miller and Rodriguez are known for, but unlike it’s predecessor, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For is all about the style, with no room for story or substance.

Bruce Willis and Jessica Alba in Sin City: A Dame to Kill For

Senator Rourke (Powers Boothe) returns as the ultimate bad-guy, but the role, which was the underpinning to the Hartigan (Bruce Willis)/Nancy (Jessica Alba) story that drove the first movie, is two-dimensional here. He is a bad guy because he is a bad guy–all sense that the power he holds has perverted his greatest strengths to his most horrible vices is gone. It is especially clear in his interactions with Johnny (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a story which seems to exist in the movie solely to show that (a) Gordon-Levitt looks very good in a tight suit and a smirk, and (b) that Rourke is a terrible person. Which we already knew.

A Dame To Kill For suffers from these issues through out. The main story–about Dwight (Josh Brolin here, Clive Owen in Sin City), and his one-true-love/femme fatale Ava Lord (Eva Green, playing the cat eyed, sullen, secretive part we’ve seen her do before, only this time with a LOT more nudity–seriously, we now know more about Green’s body then we ever really wanted to)–feels forced and falls flat of the deep, haunting, resonating love story between the doomed Hartigan and Nancy we saw in the first movie.

Josh Brolin and Eva Green as Dwight and Ava in Sin City: A Dame to Kill For

The subtle and clever interweaving of individual story and plot that made Sin City more than just a comic-book movie, and vaulted it into cult-status, is missing completely here. While there are multiple viewpoints and stories being told, including an intro by Marv (Mickey Rourke, unrecognizable in Elephant-man style make-up), each story stands by itself, touching against the others only by chance at Kadie’s Bar, where Alba’s Nancy performs a series of increasingly embarrassing strip-teases. Nancy is watched over by Marv (for some unknown reason), except when he is manipulated by one of the other characters to go off and get involved in murder and mayhem. This lack of coherence and depth, despite the solid performances by the entire cast, makes A Dame To Kill For merely all right–occasionally funny, and sometimes cringe-inducing, but never riveting.

The largely black-and-white film uses sharp, evocative jabs of color (red blood, green eyes, a sudden flash of strawberry blonde hair) as not-subtle-at-all indicators of characterization or an attempt-at-wry commentary (Ava’s eyes go green when her true character is revealed). Characters leap out of the black-and-white world of Miller’s Sin City, capturing the essence of the visual work extraordinarily well. We saw it 3D, which added nothing except a vague headache caused by the glasses.

Overall, the film is visually stunning, well acted, but unable to drive its story across numerous characters and plot lines.

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For is open at a theatre near you.

What do you think? Seen it? Won’t see it? Can’t hardly wait to see it? Watch the trailer below and let us know in the comments!

Geekscape Rates: 2.5/5 Stars

Mickey Rourke Is Officially Back As Marv In “Sin City: A Dame To Kill For”

by Eric DiazAugust 6, 2012

Mickey Rourke is officially returning as fan favorite character Marv in Sin City: A Dame To Kill For. Although poor Marv died in the electric chair in the original Sin City, A Dame To Kill For takes place before those events. Also according to the same article at Deadline, Rourke is is in talks to join Gerard Butler in the Albert Hughes directed Motor City for Joel Silver’s Dark Castle. which centers on a man who is double crossed and seeks revenge on the guy who put him behind bars and took his woman. Motor City will be distributed by Warner Bros.

Sin City Sequel Gets Early Oct 2013 Release Date

by Molly MahanMay 17, 2012

Deadline reports that Dimension Films announced the release date for the long awaited (if not marginally forgotten) sequel to 2005’s Sin City today. Frank Miller’s Sin City: A Dame To Kill For is now slated for Oct. 4, 2013 release. Like the first film, it will again be directed by Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller, with William Monahan adding a hand to the script (which is also written by the pair).

Production is set to begin later this summer in Austin, Texas, at Rodriguez’s Troublemaker Studios. Sin City alum Mickey Rourke and Jessica Alba, who played Marv and Nancy Callahan in the original, are slated to return. Nothing is official yet with regards to the other cast members, but so far they are expected to return. No word on who will replace the late Brittany Murphy as Shellie (if anyone).

Robert Rodriguez filming Sin City 2 and Machete Kills This Year

by Matt LandsmanMarch 15, 2012

After what feels like seven years of waiting…oh wait, it was actually seven years of waiting–Sin City 2 is finally headed into production. Robert Rodriguez announced at at the SXSW Interactive Festival that the much-anticipated sequel to his Frank Miller Noir adaptation will be “going into production” this summer. As exciting as this is, I’ll take it with a grain of salt until we see anything concrete, because it’s been “in production” for quite some time now. While it’s unknown who will return for the sequel, Rodriguez said the casting will be “of the same caliber and ecclecticism” as the first film’s. Years ago it was teased at that the popular graphic novel Hell and Back would be the centerpiece story of Sin City 2.

The sequel to the 2010 Grindhouse-spinoff Machete, aptly named Machete Kills will also start shooting in April. Danny Trejo will undoubtedly reprise his role as the titular character, though other casting details are unknown at this point. We can only hope Michelle Rodriguez signs on for the sequel.

For the full story, and developments on Rodriguez’s animation company, Quickdraw Animation which is working on two films currently, check out The Hollywood Reporter’s Risky Business Blog.