Sin City: A Dame To Kill For (September 2014)

Official Australian release date: 18/9/14. Viewed: 18/9/14.

Directors: Frank Miller & Robert Rodriguez

Actors: Mickey Rourke, Jessica Alba, Josh Brolin, Eva Green, Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Genre: Action / Adventure

Rating: MA

‘Sin City: A Dame To Kill For’ is a quality sequel to an exceptional, unique film. I gave ‘Sin City’ 4.5 stars and this film doesn’t quite match the first film’s graphic violence or pure originality. Having said that, however, there’s still plenty to love about ‘Sin City 2’ – it’s genuinely funny in parts, has the same great comic book-feel, with fantastic use of black & white, shadows and splashes of vivid colour to highlight certain aspects of a scene. The use of animation blends superbly with the actual actors and the score keeps everything moving.

Returning from the first ‘Sin City’ film are Marv (Rourke), Nancy (Alba), Roark (Boothe), Gail (Dawson), Dwight (now Brolin, not Owen), Miho (now Chung, not Aoki), Manute (now Haysbert, not Clarke Duncan, due to obvious reasons) and Hartigan (Willis, in flashbacks). The characters don’t get confusing or overwhelming, since the film’s basically split into three inter-connected parts. There’s Johnny (Gordon-Levitt) and his poker battles with the corrupt Senator Roark, then Ava (Green, who spends 50% of her screen-time naked – not a bad thing!) & Dwight’s ill-fated romance, and finally Marv & Nancy’s decision to do something about Roark. Almost each of the three parts has overlap with 3–5 characters from the other parts, all handled very well. There’s also plenty of great supporting cast – Meloni, Piven, Lloyd, Liotta, Temple.

I really enjoy how it looks like a comic book, but it could easily be the back streets of New York, Chicago or Los Angeles. There’s some nice tie-ins back to the first film, still plenty of guns, swords and fighting – Marv/Rourke does remind me of Hellboy/Perlman a lot! – all done quickly (less than 100min) and stylishly.

Overall: Another fun, gritty, violence-fuelled ride through Sin City.

Gav's Rating: 4 stars.