Theatrical Reviews: Sin City: A Dame to Kill For

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For is a wonderment of silly; A Grand Canyon of silliness if you will.  How can a movie that’s tone is so serious be so deeply dumb?  I laughed more during this flick then I did at some comedies I saw this year.

Not that I’m complaining, not really.  I think the silliness is less a fault and more a feature.  Michael Rodriguez, one of the directors, has often tried to recapture the ridiculous fun of classic Hollywood b-movies, often with mixed results, and I think that is exactly what he was trying to do here.  Believe it or not, he kind of succeeds with this comic book sequel.  It was a lot of fun to watch.

The visual style, while arguably indulgent, is an example of what computer generated effects can do when they’re used creatively.  Just like the original Sin City, watching “Sin City 2” makes you feel just like your watching a real life comic book minus the text bubbles.

Within the runtime we get to see femme fatales who use their sexuality as weaponry, strippers with hearts of gold and corrupt politicians.  Black and white cigarette smoke is everywhere, as are black in white faces covered in bright red blood.  “Sin City 2” is a giant pile of film noir clichés garnished with over stylized sex and violence.  It’s a chocolate covered marshmallow of entertainment; there’s plenty to enjoy, but beware the calories.

If this was a bunch of over stylized clichés from a movie genre that was currently popular then I would hate the heck out of it.  But Sin city: A Dame to Kill For is a bunch of clichés from a genre that reached it’s commercial peek sixty or seventy years ago, making it feel less like a lame-sauce rip-off and more like a loving tribute. 

I don’t really have much tolerance for the terrible string of action-nostalgia movies spawned by Michael Bay’s Transformers; but people seem to enjoy those movies despite themselves, and I guess that’s how I feel about “Sin City 2.”  It is not a good movie by any standard, but I’m not sure it wants to be.  I think it’s just trying to be a unique fun experience.  It replaces its brain with machine guns and it’s heart with an alcahollized liver, all in order to entertain.  I think it  may be the perfect guilty pleasure.

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