Who's Going Down on Sin City?
Cinema Crime or Awesome Celluloid? Have Your Say on Frank Miller's Last Comic Book Flick!
SIN CITY 2: A Dame To Kill For hit the silver screen worldwide. Based on the Frank Miller graphic novel of the same name, Hollywood hadits fingers crossed hoping it would prove to be hit but the question remains: Did the series’ die-hard fans actually give it the thumbs up?
First time round Sin City garnered critical and commercial success, taking aspects from The Hard Goodbye, The Big Fat Kill, and That Yellow Bastard graphic novel collections of the original Dark Horse Comics published series, plus a short story from within the Booze, Broads & Bullets collection.
Directed by Robert Rodgriguez and Frank Miller himself, Sin City was a black and white rendered feature with colour retained or added strategically and won the Technical Grand Prize at the 2005 Cannes Film. The dark pulp thriller bordered on the fantastique, returned Bruce Willis and Mickey Rourke to the mainstream film industry, after suffering a lull in their careers, and is notable for Jessica Alba’s cowgirl dance routine so will not be remise by not reprising that scene here (even if has been noted it derives its influence from several rock videos, most notably the Andy Morahan directeced Van Halen MTV hit Finish What Ya Started).
Ms. Alba reprised her role as Nancy Callahan in the new film and described her character development as having gone from "a bit of a damsel in distress" first time round to being "crazy, depressed, betrayed ... alcoholic” in Sin City 2: A Dame to Kill wherein the seedy scenario of the previous movie was revisited with new threats ready to enfold and old grudges about to be unleashed with many of the previous film's cast also making their return.
The series’ creator has himself fell out of favour in more recent years however. His perceived right wing views as featured in his return to comics with Batman: The Dark Night Strikes Again and Holy Terror and in public forums has outraged even hawkish Americans, the adaptation of his own 300 comic series into a movie was viewed as racist in some quarters, a Hollywood revision of history by those in the know, and just a little too unconsciously camp by others but at least made money, whereas his take on Will Eisner’s The Spirit did not.
Thus, there was a lot riding on Sin City 2: A Dame to Kill for Frank Miller in terms of both an ongoing career and his own credibility. But then there are others who say: Did he care? Has he made enough and has he become that much of an old grouch that it won't even matter?
We’ll probably never know, but what Comic Time would like to find out is what you thought of the film. Email your views, express your thoughts, the highs and lows, and most important of all: Tell us if all the dames are beautiful enough to kill for!
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