If you make the tragic mistake of mentioning to an acquaintance that you're into noir,"oh, I love noir, too" and "have you seen SIN CITY?" are some of the first things you''ll hear. It's frustrating to hear, but you have to remember that once upon a time, you were into the more timeless and theatrical noir, too. That was before you found out about Jim Thompson and Anthony Neil Smith. Back when it was still fun and unreal. I have little memories of watching the first SIN CITY, only that I remember it was heavy on style and light on content. I decided to give SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR without much of a reason, really. It arrived on Netflix and it seemed like the time had come to revisit this setting, and it turned out to be an excellent decision
SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR interweaves three different storylines, just like the first movie. There's Johnny (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a skillful but pathological player looking to humiliate and ruin the state senator (Powers Booth) for personal reasons, Dwight (Josh Brolin), a lonely and broken man struggling with his feelings for his former lover Ava (Eva Green) and, of course, Nancy (Jessica Alba), the star exotic dancer of Sin City, still haunted by the events of the first movie and trying to gather the courage to avenge Hartigan (Bruce Willis) who sacrificed himself in order to protect her from the senator (you might struggle to understand the ins and the outs of that one if you haven't seen SIN CITY).
I originally wanted to see SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR in theaters, but people and critics both warned me off, saying it was nothing but a cheap cash-in on the good memories from the original. Well, I beg to differ. The Sin City Franchise is kind of limited by its heavy visual concept, but I thought A DAME TO KILL FOR made the most out of it. I mean, it is what it is, a series of vignettes written to create a certain atmosphere to match the bleak, black and white graphic novel feeling of the movie *, but I thought the screenplay was noticeably stronger and more cohesive than the first.
Hello Gail! Don't tell anybody, but I've missed you!
The Dwight episode in particular (aptly named A Dame to Kill For), I thought was a fresh spin off the old femme fatale concept. On top of that, the episode featured personal favorite from the original SIN CITY Gail (Rosario Dawson), so that was an enjoyable plus. The femme fatale is always interpreted the same way usually, as a duplicitous succubi exploiting men's sexuality in order to get what she wants. The character played by Eva Green is different in the sense she's much more domineering and unapologetic, so you feel an aura of danger around her at all times. Kudos to Josh Brolin also, who feels right at him as the tormented bruiser. I thought A Dame to Kill For was by far the most enjoyable episode of the new Sin City movie.
SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR has this strange obsession with Jessica Alba's character Nancy. There's an iconic scene in the first movie, that created a .gif that helped every sad, lonely and pathetic men on the internet sleep better at night, and there are several scenes in A DAME TO KILL FOR that try to bank on Jessica Alba swaying her belly. It's weird and a little creepy, and it's the only part of the movie that to me, seemed like a shameless cash-in. On top of that, it just takes away from how special it was the first time to see a ten years older Jessica Alba try to recapture what is probably her biggest cinematographic legacy over and over again. I don't think the movie would've needed Nancy at all, to be honest, if it wasn't for that strange desire to connect both films.
I'm not sure what people expected out of SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR, but it sure wasn't going to be this creative, star-studded breakthrough that the first one. Truth is, no film that turns into a franchise ever is. A DAME TO KILL FOR has a solid screenplay and that fun, solid episodic structure that made the success of the first movie and to me, it was more than enough. Not to mention the solid cast, who seems to have a blast helping revive such an iconic project. SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR is a good time. It's not a masterpiece, it's not even all that original (I don't think the original project ever was), but it's just a plain ol' good time you'd be sorry to miss.
SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR has this strange obsession with Jessica Alba's character Nancy. There's an iconic scene in the first movie, that created a .gif that helped every sad, lonely and pathetic men on the internet sleep better at night, and there are several scenes in A DAME TO KILL FOR that try to bank on Jessica Alba swaying her belly. It's weird and a little creepy, and it's the only part of the movie that to me, seemed like a shameless cash-in. On top of that, it just takes away from how special it was the first time to see a ten years older Jessica Alba try to recapture what is probably her biggest cinematographic legacy over and over again. I don't think the movie would've needed Nancy at all, to be honest, if it wasn't for that strange desire to connect both films.
I'm not sure what people expected out of SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR, but it sure wasn't going to be this creative, star-studded breakthrough that the first one. Truth is, no film that turns into a franchise ever is. A DAME TO KILL FOR has a solid screenplay and that fun, solid episodic structure that made the success of the first movie and to me, it was more than enough. Not to mention the solid cast, who seems to have a blast helping revive such an iconic project. SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR is a good time. It's not a masterpiece, it's not even all that original (I don't think the original project ever was), but it's just a plain ol' good time you'd be sorry to miss.