Famine's Review: Sin City

[Famine]

I wish I hadn't bothered watching this execrable pile of smeg.

Perhaps my unfamiliarity with the strip didn't help. Perhaps I'm not overly fond of the Tarantino-style random-time scene format of filming. I certainly wasn't impressed by the usage of B&W with the odd splash of colour thrown in - a cinematographic technique pioneered in about 1437 by Benedictine monks.

It seemed as if every "central" character was an indestructible superhero, who then got killed just when they thought they'd won. Interesting once. Not very interesting repeatedly. Especially when three times they spontaneously resurrected the character, only for them to die again (except McCarthy, who died twice, was resurrected twice and failed to die the third time). Not to mention the repetitive nature of the lines ("I took away his weapon - both of them". "Always... and never". and so on).

Every time I saw Marv I just thought "Is this guy trying to be Hellboy or something?". Every time Clive Owen opened his mouth I heard a British accent trying, but failing, to be an embittered American. I couldn't understand the point of Kevin - he just seemed to be, to borrow a gaming term, an end-of-level boss. In fact, the whole of Roark Farm seemed to be just a level from a third-rate platformer...

On the up side there was... no, just kidding. There wasn't one.


Overall, worse than either Kill Bill.

 

[Danoff]

Overall, worse than either Kill Bill.

Ouch! It must really suck.

 

[ExigeEvan]

Watched this over 911_Carrera's house.

I thought it was pretty good, the lack of colour made it kind of dramatic and the story line was confusing at times but not overly so (Unlike momento which really was testing not confusing.).

We laughed at the gorey bits and I was puzzled, also, by the invincibility many of the characters had.

Good in my opinion, overall.

 

[Zrow]

Overall, worse than either Kill Bill.

Hah, I see that we must have veerryy different taste in movies, as I liked all three mentioned.

 

[Sprite]

ohhh dear Famine, the film is based on a comic strip, which contains very dark adult humor, i personally hate the strip (sorry but i prefer ABC Warriors ), the film for me was just like the strip, but because its a film made it more available to audiances than the strip.

personally i liked it but not going to buy on dvd, maybe rent later some time, as for your remark on the kill bill series, this is nothing like, and they are actually good.

 

[Zardoz]

Quentin Tarantino is to movies what Dave Matthews is to music: Titanically over-rated, and unfathomably reverred by a bewilderingly large number of people.

 

[Sprite]

Quentin Tarantino is to movies what Dave Matthews is to music: Titanically over-rated, and unfathomably reverred by a bewilderingly large number of people.

Agreed, but i do like the kill bill series, as im a big martial art's film fan, and this is one of said genre, but i hate Reservoir Dogs and Plup Fiction, but loved Jackie brown.

 

[Danoff]

Quentin Tarantino is to movies what Dave Matthews is to music: Titanically over-rated, and unfathomably reverred by a bewilderingly large number of people.

BAM!! Right on both points 👍 👍 👍

 

[niky]

Quentin Tarantino is to movies what Dave Matthews is to music: Titanically over-rated, and unfathomably reverred by a bewilderingly large number of people.

But Dave Matthews does write some interesting guitar licks, even though most of his music is kinda boring.

Watching Sin City as a movie on its own merits yields mixed reactions from me. It's just too disjointed, the dialogue is silly, the characters are too predictable... the plot is damn silly.

Watch it as a visual comic book, though, and it achieves its goal as being a faithful adaptation of a darkly humorous and satirical adult comic. The cornball dialogue fits, the over-the-top action fits, and the two-dimensional characters fit right into the genre of "adult comix".

Horrible movie, good video-comic book.

 

[niky]

ohhh dear Famine, the film is based on a comic strip, which contains very dark adult humor, i personally hate the strip (sorry but i prefer ABC Warriors ), the film for me was just like the strip, but because its a film made it more available to audiances than the strip.

personally i liked it but not going to buy on dvd, maybe rent later some time, as for your remark on the kill bill series, this is nothing like, and they are actually good.

You actually still read ABC Warriors? Are they still publishing that?

The only 2000 AD title I collect (off the discount stands here) is Strontium Dog. Kinda silly, but a fun, secret addiction.

 

[Sprite]

You actually still read ABC Warriors? Are they still publishing that?

The only 2000 AD title I collect (off the discount stands here) is Strontium Dog. Kinda silly, but a fun, secret addiction.

dont think they still publish ABC Warrior's but i have a large comic collection, which most of is 2oooAD, Strontium Dog yeh i have a strong affection for this comic too.

My first 2oooAD contained an ABC warriors story and a Strontium Dog's story too, and ive been collecting since. also have laots of others but these are my fraves.

on topic:

Watch it as a visual comic book, though, and it achieves its goal as being a faithful adaptation of a darkly humorous and satirical adult comic. The cornball dialogue fits, the over-the-top action fits, and the two-dimensional characters fit right into the genre of "adult comix".

Horrible movie, good video-comic book.

Thats basicly what i was trying to get at 👍

 

[Famine]

ohhh dear Famine, the film is based on a comic strip

Perhaps my unfamiliarity with the strip didn't help.

As an aside, what, exactly, is "adult" about blood in negative, some swearing and a few breasts? It seems to be an interpretation of "adult" held by juveniles.

 

[a6m5]

Quentin Tarantino is to movies what Dave Matthews is to music: Titanically over-rated, and unfathomably reverred by a bewilderingly large number of people.

I thought Dave Matthews was overrated, but this post just proves to me that I'm missing out on something from Dave Matthews Band. I mean if you guys think Tarantino is overrated, then I must be being ignorant on Dave Matthews. He does have all that following.

I liked all of Tarantino's work, including flicks he collaborated or contributed on, like "Sin City" and "From Dusk Till Dawn". My guess is that you guys just don't like Tarantino's style, so you think he's overrated. It reminds me of how I feel about Pink Floyd or Led Zeppelin. I don't care for their music, but I would never say they are overrated. I can sense their talent, it's just not my cup of tea. I have no doubt in my mind that Quentin Tarantino will be remembered as one of the greatest film makers of our time.

 

[Sprite]

As an aside, what, exactly, is "adult" about blood in negative, some swearing and a few breasts? It seems to be an interpretation of "adult" held by juveniles.

well seeing as its an 18, and as soon as you reach the age of 18 in the uk you can be classed as an adult then yes its an adult film.

 

[Famine]

The reference was to the content - and the comic strip. It's classed as an "adult comic", when it actually appears to - from my impressions from the film - deal primarily in "bad" words, some boobies and a bit of violence pasted on to mask the craptitude.

Memento is an adult film. Lost in Translation is an adult film. Sin City is merely an 18.

 

[Anderton Prime]

Famine, it's time to forget about Memento. It was pretty good, but now it's been talked about almost as much as The Usual Suspects, and I'm pretty sick and tired of hearing about both.

Sin City succeeded in putting comic book style into a film format. Where others have tried to do this, they have been met with only limited success (the best example I would have to say is M. Night Shyamalan's Unbreakable). The story is not supposed to be believable, and it's supposed to be overly exaggerated to the point that you need to rely on your imagination to keep your grip on the story. That is what comic books are all about.

As for the "adult" prefix to the comic book in question, it's all been decided by the powers that be, all of whom have obviously agreed that breasts, graphic violence, and the F-word are all to be enjoyed by adult audiences only. And by adult, they have also agreed for the most part that on everyone's 18th birthday, they instantly become an adult. Can we please avoid getting into an argument about ratings and adult content and censorship at all costs? It's boring and leads nowhere. Sin City is called an adult comic book because of its content, not because of the "juvenile-ness" of its plot or the apparent mental ages of its characters.

 

[Famine]

Who said anything about censorship?

You can hear the F-word and see both breasts AND graphic violence in 15 films. You can probably get two out of three in 12-rated films too. Martin Clunes once opined that we would be hearing the F-word in children's programmes inside 25 years. We've still got a good 15 years left to see if his prediciton comes true. His point probably being that our "shock" threshhold dimishes with use - and filmmakers keep trying to surpass one another in the amounts of each they can use.

It does rather seem that when anyone tries to apply the word "adult" to anything - be it comic book, film or even computer game - it instantly means they need to add tits, **** and people being decapitated. Personally, I prefer cohesion and the use of the brain - perhaps that makes me puerile, since it rules me out of "adult", seemingly.


Nevertheless, you've again focussed on an aside and skipped out the entire first post.

 

[Sprite]

I didnt disagree with the review, infact i agree with parts, but on a whole i thought it came across as though you had gone to see the film with the idea in your head of what you wanted it to be like, and then just wrote the review to rant on about your feelings to a film you hated before you watched it (if that makes sense).

well seeing as its an 18, and as soon as you reach the age of 18 in the uk you can be classed as an adult then yes its an adult film.

And by adult, they have also agreed for the most part that on everyone's 18th birthday, they instantly become an adult.

It was a joke and in agreement to the idea that people that giggle at the sight of a bit of flesh on a film were childish no matter what their age, maybe it didnt come out they way it was meant to be.

 

[smellysocks12]

I went to see Sin City with high expectations. During the first part the movie lived up to my expectations, but the 2nd half ruined it for me. I didn't like the characters from there on and I lost interest in the movie.


Being a fan of Tarantino's previous work, including the cheesy but entertaining Kill Bill, this one isn't as good in my opinion.


People say Tarantino is overrated, but Reservoir Dogs, True Romance and Pulp Fiction are incredible pieces of work and even though as a movie it was quite ****ty, From Dusk Til Dawn was great too, just because of it's incredibly original twist which turned the movie from a great action / crime movie to a cheesy horror flick. Jackie Brown never really was special to me. Maybe if it would have been shortened I would have liked it better.

 

[Anderton Prime]

Nevertheless, you've again focussed on an aside and skipped out the entire first post.

Sorry, wrong. I was replying to an aside you had posted.

 

[the_undrtaker89]

This movie was pretty good cinematography-wise, but other than that the killing just got stupid after a while. The first half was great and after the first half I just got bored with the relentless, animalistic killing. Plus I gotta say when these guys film the whole movie infront of a blue screen it really gets unrealistic. This movie is nothing compared to Reservoir Dogs, which contained relentless killing and was pretty budget.


I give sin city one for the first half and for the second half.

 

[Famine]

Sorry, wrong. I was replying to an aside you had posted.

Yes you have. And you've focussed on that and skipped out the entire first post.

So... how is it wrong to say exactly that?

Maybe I should just try to ban you from posting in my threads, like you've done (or tried to) twice so far.

 

[sn00pie]

On the up side, didn't that girl from Gilmore Girls look hot or what?!

 

[Driftster]

Holy crap, me and Famine agree on something.

This movie was garbage. There is such a thing as "too artsy for mainstream media". Not only that, but the dialog was the worste i've think i've ever heard. Was it supposed to sound like a Max Payne spoof?

The gratutious nut shots were kind of lame, the fact that some guys died in 1 bullet. But low and behold our hero's can take about 3 clips and come back for more.

Overall it was a poor poor movie, with a very weak story, with jumps and time that although inventive, jumped to the WRONG points in time. Point A-C-B-D-A-C-B Come on now.

This movie was garbage, and actually in retrospect, makes Star Wars Episode III look "alright"


Although it isn't often you get to see Roerk beating people up. Maybe there's a reason for that.

 

[donbenni]

I like Dave Mathews Band and Star Wars Episode III was awesome, is this film for me?

 

[Driftster]

Donbenni...

The nicest part of the movie..IMO..
was the ferrari

The movie..I can sum up the style of the movie pretty simple..

Imagine if Max Payne, was really a group of stories.......1: bruce willis
another Mickey rourke and another is clive owen..goin on at the same time...in black and white..

with all Max payne-esque narrative and little dialog........

and alot of nut-shots

 

[Anderton Prime]

Maybe I should just try to ban you from posting in my threads, like you've done (or tried to) twice so far.

Hey, if you see me making an off-topic post in a thread I've started, feel free to respond in an equally off-topic manner. But don't call the kettle black when you're doing the same thing, and before me to boot.

 

[Famine]

Ex-squeeze me? Baking powder?

I didn't call anyone anything. I said that you replied to my aside alone and ignored the first post - and you said I was wrong for saying that. What actually happened was that you replied to my aside alone and ignored the first post, so I wasn't wrong for saying that.

Whether or not it's on-topic, off-topic or a flamingo doesn't concern me. The day I start caring about being on-topic is the day Satan hitches a ride on a snowplough to work.

 

[Anderton Prime]

When are you going to learn that you can't defeat me by simply arguing the same point over and over, even when I have fully and completely addressed it earlier? I didn't say you were "wrong" for telling me I was off-topic, only that you were being hypocritical, because my response was in response to your own off-topic post. Now, for future reference, I will bring this point up each and every time you bring up the point about my post being off-topic.

By the way, if simply calling you a hypocrite is not enough to penetrate that thick skull of yours, refer back to the X-Men 3 thread I opened, in which you fly off on a hell of a tangent, first about how you can't fathom how anyone could like Vinnie Jones, then about how the people who do like Vinnie Jones - along with their opinions - are completely and whole-heartedly invalid.

Of course, right now I expect you to post something "brilliant" like, "That's right, anyone who likes Vinnie Jones is a simpleton." Which will of course be a perfect illustration of your own hypocritical nature.

At least my post in here had to do with what was being discussed at the time - namely, the "adult" nature of the Sin City comic book. If you're going to try (unsuccessfully) to call me out for off-topic posting, you'll have to round up sprite and niky as well, not to mention yourself.

 

[Famine]

At no point did I say anything about you being off-topic. Why? Because:

Whether or not it's on-topic, off-topic or a flamingo doesn't concern me. The day I start caring about being on-topic is the day Satan hitches a ride on a snowplough to work.

On the other hand:

I didn't say you were "wrong"

Nevertheless, you've again focussed on an aside and skipped out the entire first post.

Sorry, wrong.

Looks like I was right to mention "Memento", since you can't apparently remember your own posts (while inventing things in other people's).


You're a cure for insomnia, AP. Good to see you still like the direct insults though.