Sin City (2005) [Repost]

Posted By: denisbul

Sin City (2005)
DVDRip | AVI | English | 124 min | 608x320 | XviD - 1121 Kbps | AC3 6 ch - 448 Kbps | 1,37 GB MB
Genre: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller | 16 wins & 31 nominations | USA

IMDB: 8.3/10 (289,618 votes)
Directed by: Frank Miller, Robert Rodriguez
Starring: Jessica Alba, Devon Aoki, Alexis Bledel, Powers Boothe, Rosario Dawson

Welcome to Sin City. This town beckons to the tough, the corrupt, the brokenhearted, some call it dark. Hard-boiled. Then there are those who call it home. Crooked cops. Sexy Dames. Desperate vigilantes. Some are seeking revenge. Others lust after redemption. And then there are those hoping for a little of both. A universe of unlikely and reluctant heroes still trying to do the right thing in a city that refuses to care.

Bookmarked by a short of sorts involving a suave hitman (Josh Hartnett) and his prey, Sin City is divided into three nonlinear, overlapping stories. The first follows a hardened heap of stone named Marv (a nearly unrecognizable Mickey Rourke) who's framed for the murder of the love of his life: a yellow-haired prostitute named Goldie (Jamie King). As Marv's investigation leads him to a twin sister, his parole officer (Carla Gugino), a group of vindictive working girls, and, eventually, the home of a renowned Basin City Cardinal (Rutger Hauer), he winds his way deeper and deeper into a city he adores. Eventually, he encounters a vicious cannibal (Elijah Wood) and a horrible truth that leads him to question his feelings, his future, and his purpose. Rodriguez and Miller's second tale introduces a woman named Shellie (Brittany Murphy) who's threatened by her shifty ex-boyfriend, Jackie Boy (Benicio del Toro). When her current beau Dwight (Clive Owen) intervenes, the squirming whelp retreats and finds himself knee deep in blood at the hands of a hooker-with-a-machine-gun named Gail (Rosario Dawson). But when Dwight, Gail, and the rest of the girls (Devon Aoki and Alexis Bledel, among others) realize Jackie was actually a police officer, they have to ditch his body, avoid a gigantic thug named Manute (Michael Clarke Duncan), and preserve the already tenuous peace of the alleys.


The third and meatiest pick of the litter focuses on a police officer named John Hartigan (Bruce Willis), a steady veteran who saves a young girl named Nancy Callahan (Makenzie Vega) from the clutches of the depraved son (Nick Stahl) of a powerful senator (Powers Boothe). But when the stalwart cop is betrayed by his own partner (Michael Madsen) after pumping several bullets into the rapist in question, he finds himself sent up the river for Junior's crimes to endure a lengthy prison sentence. Released years later, Hartigan tracks down Nancy (Jessica Alba), now a stripper at a local club, to make sure she's safe. Unbeknownst to him, the senator's son alive, well, and coping with a variety of deformities including hideous yellow skin has been using Hartigan to find Nancy and tie up loose ends. As the unlikely lovers are forced to contend with the very violent ghosts of their pasts, they have to exact justice on an unrepentant monster and come to terms with the seedy underbelly of Basin City.


As conceived by Rodriguez, Sin City is a sprawling, breathtaking realization of Miller's stories that incorporates exceedingly faithful panel-to-screen visuals, unflinchingly brutal violence, and enough stylized gunplay to fill a dozen modern actioners. The seemingly endless reservoir of notable names he parades through the production is as impressive as it is perfectly cast Oscar-winning actors appear for mere minutes before disappearing, while relative unknowns steal scenes right out from under legendary heavyweights. It's a thrilling, unpredictable affair packed with unexpected deaths and multiple gut-wrenching climaxes. Yet calling the film a collection of shorts robs it of its cohesive brilliance; attempting to pluck out any one crucial support leaves the rest of the cards wavering in the wind. The screenplay itself plays with time, interconnectivity, and meaningful exchanges early asides and unrelated events are often revealed to have lasting ramifications for each character that calls Basin City home. Rodriguez doesn't simply toss every character he can into a noir-tinted blender, he guides them into specific configurations with increasingly calculating reason. He doesn't just breathe life into his adaptation, he gives Miller's every ink blot and cross-hatch its own twisted soul.


I know Sin City isn't for everyone its unforgiving gore and sexuality may strike some as gratuitous and unnecessary, its ever-present narration may elicit accusations of pretension, and its jarring tonal shifts may lose the uncommitted along the way but it's tough to deny that Rodriguez has delivered a dense and fascinating journey through the darkest corners of man's soul. More to the point, even though its heroes are few and far between, righteousness is a fading commodity, and villainy continually rises to rule the day, the film offers a complex and bustling overview of a city spiraling out of control as despair takes hold of its best and brightest. In that regard, the film proves itself to be a well-cloaked masterwork that presents the eternal struggle between morality and depravity with ever-evolving intensity. Rodriguez and Miller may not want their work to be over-analyzed, but it doesn't change the fact that Sin City is a nuanced investigation into the things that separate man from monster. I for one am smitten.
Reviewed by Kenneth Brown (blu-ray.com)