Famine's Review: Sin City

[Anderton Prime]

At no point did I say anything about you being off-topic.

AhahahahahaHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

What in the world is your mental malfunction? You quoted yourself doing just that, right after you said you never did that! Lost? Let me spell it out for you:

Nevertheless, you've again focussed on an aside...

Is that, or is it not, you scolding me for being off-topic? Let's all agree that "focusing on an aside" is pretty similar - if not exactly the same - as being "off-topic."

Sometimes, direct insults are the only way to deal with a hypocrite. Let's see how many more off-topic - oh wait, sorry, "asides" we can focus on, shall we?

And if this is true:

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.

then why did you make a point of mentioning it in the first place? You'll need to answer this one directly before you tell me I don't pay attention to my previous posts.

 

[James2097]

I loved this, so hey I must be juvenile!

Cheesy movies can be good if you can rise above one's own smart-arse tendency to hate things and instead just enjoy the sillyness of it all. I found Sin City really entertaining. The girls were sexy, the over the top violence was quite hilarious in its logic flaws and often pointless brutality - a real perverted heroism that fitted the unsettling tone and perpetual dark of the night. The sheer excessiveness of it all I found really funny and powerful, but surprisingly, doesn't feel cheap as all the violence is vital to our image of this crazy world. The director seemed to be playing with the audience's natural sense of logic and disbelief, an intended jab at the genre itself... All the cheesy throwaway lines and larger than life (super-human) characters were fully intentional as part of the whole comic-book kind of logic, where its only the theatrical merit and emotional drama of a scene thats important! You're supposed to groan at the daggy lines, but ultimately the beauty of this film's vision was more important than the simplistic dialogue. Its not difficult to make sense of the pacing and the 'jumping' between different story arcs... there were only 3 main story threads... I found the overall mood and atmosphere really unique and quite electrifying... it drew me into that seedy, brutal world of tough guys, hard cases, guns, girls, lovers and losers... It was simple, but presented with a real visceral beauty and cohesion (stylistically, not story wise) you don't often get in modern movies (and certainly not comic book film adaptions). Some of the cheesy lines sounded (appealingly) like they could be some classic movie quote from the 40's or 50's, like "I'll always love ya baby" (simplistic defiance against the darkness of the night, laughably 2D (black and white?) characterisation). The black and white presentation worked wonderfully to this end, atmospherically and also thematically (simplistic nature of each character's motives and views). The characters I found to be really involving in their old-school theatrical delivery and over the top (insane?) emotional drive...

The film did drag a little near the end, but I loved the world that Robert Rodriguez & Frank Miller created so much that I didn't really care, but I see what people mean when they enjoyed the first half more.

And no, I haven't read any of the comics. I usually find comic books just kiddie and juvenile but I liked this film a lot, it seemed to be more than the sum of its parts.

I really think Famine and many others misunderstood the point of this film. Its fine to not enjoy it, but its undoubtedly a landmark in modern film making, just like Kill Bill 1 & 2. No one is going to enjoy any fictitious kind of film if they don't let themselves suspend their disbelief long enough to become involved in the film's world... The urge to be overtly critical, to be a pessimistic smart arse is quite strong I must admit, to always say "well thats just stupid... because blah blah blah", but sadly you miss out on many potentially enjoyable films this way. I've actually only just learnt how NOT to point out all the logic flaws and continuity problems in a film to everyone around me as it really ruins it for everyone, including myself. I reccommend Famine should get really drunk before watching any film, this way he'll enjoy it no matter what!

No accounting for taste.

 

[FoolKiller]

I started out liking the film but got bored near the end. I won't buy it on DVD but will watch it again if I run across it.

I have a rule that I will watch any movie once, and with an open mind. This has lead me to find great gems. Unfortunately, this has also meant that I had to watch any movie with the word sisterhood in the title.

I am a Tarantino fan mainly because I love his dialogue. I knew Kill Bill was supposed to be a cheesey martial arts style film and went in looking just for that. I do not, however, find Dave Matthews Band to be all that great. I have some friends who drove something like four hours to see them. I don't get it. So I understand what you must think of Tarantino fans and I understand why, even if I do disagree.

Once upon a time I was very picky about movies when I snapped and realized that I wasn't looking at them in the right mindset. So, I decided that I would go and watch them with a fully open mind every time and they were suddenly something different. I found even the worst of movies watchable but could tell the difference between a watchable movie, a good movie, and a great movie. I can tell when it was great because I walk away with a sense of accomplishment. I have never decided to turn off a movie.

 

[Famine]

AhahahahahaHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

What in the world is your mental malfunction? You quoted yourself doing just that, right after you said you never did that! Lost? Let me spell it out for you.

Is that, or is it not, you scolding me for being off-topic?

It's not. It's me pointing out that you'd prefer to have an argument about a small additional thing than address any feature of the original post.

Let's all agree that "focusing on an aside" is pretty similar - if not exactly the same - as being "off-topic."

Why? Because it is in your head?

Sometimes, direct insults are the only way to deal with a hypocrite.

Remind me of the AUP/ToS again.

then why did you make a point of mentioning it in the first place? You'll need to answer this one directly before you tell me I don't pay attention to my previous posts.

Simple. You think I said something I didn't. Your inferences are not my problem and never have been, each and every time you decide what you think I've said.

You, on the other hand, denied saying the exact word you actually said.


At some point, Tarantino is going to film this thread. His brain is no more screwed up than yours is - perhaps he can make sense of the nonsense you're gibbering, because no other bugger can.

 

[Duke]

Anderton Prime, there is quite a difference between going off-topic - which is what you keep insisting Famine is yelling at you about - and missing the point - which is what he's actually yelling at you about.

I see that your sense of humor is still in hiding, but the "Prime" label has added another level of passive- to your aggressiveness. So you still proceed from an arrogant, smug, and self-satisfied basis, but since you promised yourself you wouldn't "argue" any more, you have to find ways like this to get it out somehow.

And you still find time to tell Famine to "get it through his thick skull", and complain that he is trying to win by belaboring the wrong point... which is precisely your most common tactic.

Give it up, son; nobody can be bothered any more.

 

[Zardoz]

...Once upon a time I was very picky about movies when I snapped and realized that I wasn't looking at them in the right mindset. So, I decided that I would go and watch them with a fully open mind every time and they were suddenly something different. I found even the worst of movies watchable but could tell the difference between a watchable movie, a good movie, and a great movie. I can tell when it was great because I walk away with a sense of accomplishment. I have never decided to turn off a movie.

Nope, can't agree with this at all. I'm way pickier now, and crappy movies piss me off more than ever. Like I mentioned in another thread, the neatly-wrapped-up, everthing-turns-out-great-in-the-end finish to "Shawshank" wrecked that otherwise great movie for me. I just can't stand when filmmakers pull crap like that, or make sloppy mistakes, or not take the trouble to fix lame dialog and holes in the storyline.

My son rented "Flight Of The Phoenix" last week, and we made fun of it pretty much from start to finish. It just stank. No big deal because it was a two-buck drugstore rental, but if he, his mom, and I had blown thirty bucks and a trip to a theater on that piece of crap it would have taken me a week to get over it.

It pretty much takes a sure Oscar contender to get me into a theater now. If the reviewers don't uniformly rave about it, I'll pass. Sure, I've missed a few good ones, but that's what DVDs are for, after all. If I find out later that I missed a good one, I'll wait a few months and rent it cheap.

So FK, if you want to call it "having an open mind", then fine, suit yourself. I'll be out here on the other end of the spectrum (with Famine), getting ticked at every amateurish, cheap, lazy, sloppy, stupid, demographic group-pandering stunt they pull.

 

[FoolKiller]

So FK, if you want to call it "having an open mind", then fine, suit yourself. I'll be out here on the other end of the spectrum (with Famine), getting ticked at every amateurish, cheap, lazy, sloppy, stupid, demographic group-pandering stunt they pull.

I guess I worded this wrong. Instead of open mind I should have said blank mind. I will agree with you that there is a lot of horrible stuff out there in the entertainment industry as a whole and in all honesty the only way to survive much of it is to go in blank. I used to get angry at movies when they were bad. I saw Anaconda at the campus theater when I was in college for a dollar and I was still in a rage over that. I wanted my buck and the two hours back.

Since then I calmed down and have learned that the most I need to know about the movie beforehand is the genre. This helps me to decide whether it is theater worthy, a Netflix movie, or wait for it on HBO. If there are supposed to be big effects and action the theater will add to that. Dramas, comedies, and anything else do not lose their effect on a TV screen. This also puts me in the right mindset for the movie.

Circling this back on to topic: this is what bothered me about Sin City, it was advertised as a mindless action flick which is how I went into it. With full knowledge of the comic book I expected the cheesy dialogue and the odd color scheme. By the end of the movie I was quickly wore out because the movie didn't know if it was artsy or cheesy action. By confusing itself it lost the effect of both.

When I say I will watch any movie once I don't mean I will like them all. I just mean that I can make myself stand watching the movie. I do not mean that anyone else is wrong in their viewpoint. Afterall, it is a point of view and an opinion. There is no right or wrong answer.

All I can ask is; don't you have more important things to get angry at? By your standards you should be angry at 99.9% of all the movies out there. Hollywood is not worth that much anger.

 

[Zardoz]

...All I can ask is; don't you have more important things to get angry at? By your standards you should be angry at 99.9% of all the movies out there. Hollywood is not worth that much anger.

Absolutely. Thank God I don't see 100% of the movies made. I'd end up going postal or something.

I do miss a few great ones, though, like I said. Case in point: Somehow the phenomenal Jet Li movie Hero got by me. I'm really glad my son rented it, because not seeing that stunning work would've been a real loss. I regret not seeing it on a big screen, in a quality theater.

 

[FoolKiller]

I do miss a few great ones, though, like I said. Case in point: Somehow the phenomenal Jet Li movie Hero got by me. I'm really glad my son rented it, because not seeing that stunning work would've been a real loss. I regret not seeing it on a big screen, in a quality theater.

Hero was one of those gems I found by trying to watch everything and giving it a chance. A year before it hit theaters a coworker gave me an import DVD and I loved it.

 

[Slick Rick]

Overall, worse than either Kill Bill.

Ouch! It must really suck.

WTF!!!!!!!

KILL BILL IS THE ONE OF THE BEST MOVIES EVAR!!!!

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

Crazy people

 

[smellysocks12]

Kill Bill isn't one of the best movies ever. It 'borrowed' scenes from some of the best movies ever. Still a very entertaining movie though.

 

[Duke]

Quentin Tarantino blows. He's a one trick pony and that trick is not terribly entertaining.

If you took Oliver Stone's brain and cut it in half, then transplanted it into two different people, the left half would be Michael Moore and the right half would be Quentin Tarantino.

That means they are both half as smart as Oliver Stone - and considering how little respect I have for Oliver Stone, I have no repsect for either of his brain-impaired stepchildren.

 

[Pupik]

That means they are both half as smart as Oliver Stone - and considering how little respect I have for Oliver Stone, I have no repsect for either of his brain-impaired stepchildren.

That's sig material right...eh, never mind. I liked Pulp Fiction, and to the circular file with the rest of his dreck.

As for Olivier Newton Stone, I just pass by anything that has his seal of approval on it.

 

[the_undrtaker89]

Ok, I don't even get how this SIN CITY thread became all about tarantino?? It isn't even his movie! He just directed one chase scene and that was it. So let us slow down with the quentin bashing......

 

[Famine]

Though he IS a tosspot.

 

[Anderton Prime]

Ok, I don't even get how this SIN CITY thread became all about tarantino?? It isn't even his movie! He just directed one chase scene and that was it. So let us slow down with the quentin bashing......

Well well, looks like I'm not the only one "missing the point." Though I am the only one being repirimanded and publicly humiliated for it. Guess that's life though. And Duke, you've been a not-so-silent opponent of mine ever since the beginning, so I expect nothing different from you and as such I am never surprised. As for Famine and I, we've been stepping on each other's toes since my first few posts; I have given up my petty squabbling, but you must know by now that I can never surrender to my nemesis.

 

[Famine]

Hurrah! I'm a nemesis.

Wait... isn't that a kind of flatworm?

 

[James2097]

Anderton, the 2nd and 3rd Matrix movies were the absolute worst movie sequels created in the entirety of motion picture history. They sucked. Hard, blew chunks of crap on the screen.

Hey, its unhealthy to direct ALL your anger solely at Famine.

 

[Zardoz]

...the 2nd and 3rd Matrix movies were the absolute worst movie sequels created in the entirety of motion picture history. They sucked. Hard, blew chunks of crap on the screen...

I refuse to think of Phantom Menace and Attack of The Clones as "prequels". They are de facto sequels, and as such will forever hold the title as worst of all time until the end of human existence. Their wretchedness, and Lucas' cynical betrayal of his legions of fans, will never by equaled again in the history of motion pictures.

Come on, Reloaded and Revolutions are masterpieces by comparison. Menace and Clones were so foul I'll never watch Revenge of The Sith just as a form of protest...

 

[James2097]

Hmm perhaps equally bad...

Revenge of the Sith was amazingly good compared to the other 2 recent Star Wars movies though. Kinda wierd to say something like "I saw Terminator 3 and it sucked, so I'll never see number 2 just out of protest". You may aswell see the better of the three...

 

[Zardoz]

...Kinda wierd...

Yeah, people look at me funny when I say that, but I don't care. That's how disgusted I am with Lucas about those two turkeys...

 

[niky]

Quentin Tarantino blows. He's a one trick pony and that trick is not terribly entertaining.

If you took Oliver Stone's brain and cut it in half, then transplanted it into two different people, the left half would be Michael Moore and the right half would be Quentin Tarantino.

That means they are both half as smart as Oliver Stone - and considering how little respect I have for Oliver Stone, I have no repsect for either of his brain-impaired stepchildren.

I agree, that is damn good sig material.

As for QT: I enjoyed Kill Bill for its mindless violence and flippantly clever dialogue. QT does sometimes get so full of himself that it's tiring to watch some of his scenes.

The Matrix Trilogy: 1 was pretty nice, 2 was just too "Hey, we're successful! Let's make the most over-the-top action movie we can with the tons of money we've got", it didn't advance the story or franchise as much as it should have. 3 was not the best movie ever, but it got back on the right track... to the enjoyment of some and to the disappointment of others.

Revenge of the Sith is the best Star Wars made, so far. That's not saying much, as the only thing good about the first three films is Harrison Ford (It only seems so good in retrospect because there was nothing else like it at the time, also Harrison Ford seemed so good then because he's absolutely lost it nowadays.)

I DID enjoy Revenge of the Sith, as it was a well crafted movie for a Star Wars. The only extremely cringe inducing scenes in the movie were Natalie Portman's scenes with that dumb kid who plays Skywalker turned Vader... For the rest of the movie, you can turn your mind off and enjoy... for these parts, your mind turns back on and tries to work out how such a good actress can be so BAD in this role.

Sin City: Robert Rodriguez didn't really direct it anyway, did he? All he did was translate comic to video as seamlessly as possible. So all of the credit or blame for Sin City falls solely on the shoulders of Frank Miller. Miller is a genius of his genre. The over dramatic (almost like Japanese manga) and epicly heroic nature of his heroes is nicely contrasted with the human element he manages to work in.

This is the guy who made Batman cool back in the 80's. Who made the Justice League and Superman cool. He practically invented the "serious" Batman. Without him, they wouldn't be back on the big screen or in cartoons... they'd have been cancelled. His trademark cornball serious dialogue is both an adulation and a satirical poke at his own genre. The problem with Miller is, like so many other renowned comic writer/artist/creators, if you take him out of context, he sucks. Like Chris Claremont (of X-Men fame) sucked when he tried writing novels. Neil Gaiman is making a good go of it, I suppose, but he's not as impressive in novels as he is in comics.

Musician/Singers can't act. Actors can't sing. Artists shouldn't write, and Celebrites damn well shouldn't paint. Comics people belong in the comics, because anywhere else, they just seem damn silly.



And whoever made the Max Payne analogy... don't be silly. Frank Miller has been writing dialogue this corny since the time of Pong.

 

[555]

I cant beleive it took till yesterday to point out that Tarintino directed about 2 minutes of this film! Robert Rodriguez & Frank Miller directed this!!

Sin City is a good film, it goes down hill at the Bruce Willis part. But Mickey rourke & Clive Owen's parts are very good.

This is the 1st place i have ever seen bad reviews about Sin City! It got good/great reviews nearly everywhere. It is over-rated, but still a good film.

 

[Famine]

I did mention it in the first post:

Perhaps I'm not overly fond of the Tarantino-style random-time scene format of filming.

Tarantino-style - in the style of Tarantino...

This is the 1st place i have ever seen bad reviews about Sin City! It got good/great reviews nearly everywhere. It is over-rated, but still a good film.

I'm not afraid to bite the hand that feeds me - because it doesn't. If I pay to watch a film and I think it's crap, I'll say so. Besides, the second thread for Sin City at IMDB is "worst film ever made"

Appallingly, there's a sequel on its way next year, and a threequel coming out in 2008. Yay! More gimmick-packed time-skip films!

 

[FoolKiller]

I cant beleive it took till yesterday to point out that Tarintino directed about 2 minutes of this film! Robert Rodriguez & Frank Miller directed this!!

No one said Tarantino directed Sin City. It was a tangent that started when a couple of people used Tarantino to compare to SIn City as an example of how much they thought it sucked. Then people began fighting over whether or not Tarantino is a good writer/director or not.

We all know this was not Tarantino's work.

 

[James2097]

Who specifically said Taratino directed Sin City? I thought folks were just taking any excuse to bag out Tarantino, as he is such a love him or hate him director.

Personally, I find his films great, the torture scene in Reservoir Dogs has to be one of the best scenes in cinema history. I loved the flippant violence present in a lot of his work. Very funny stuff. There IS a big element of supposedly "Tarantino style" film-making in Sin City (regardless of Tarantino's actual role), maybe just because Tarantino was influenced by a lot of comics in his work in general.

 

[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.

Who specifically said Taratino directed Sin City? I thought folks were just taking any excuse to bag out Tarantino, as he is such a love him or hate him director.

Right. I never said anything about him directing the film. Famine mentioned the "T" word, and I jumped on the opportunity to say something nasty about him, which of course led me to logically and reasonably say something nasty about Dave Matthews.

It all makes perfect sense, doesn't it?

 

[a6m5]

Nobody uses "THX-1138" or "American Graffiti" to rate George Lucas, so I don't know why some people are using "Kill Bill" to rate Quentin Tarantino. I think Kill Bill was his weakest work, and I don't think I'm alone there. Many didn't like "Jackie Brown", but that was a great film, IMO.

Right. I never said anything about him directing the film. Famine mentioned the "T" word, and I jumped on the opportunity to say something nasty about him, which of course led me to logically and reasonably say something nasty about Dave Matthews.

It all makes perfect sense, doesn't it?

 

[BlackZ28]

I thought this was an awesome movie. Saw it twice in the movie theatre. If you havent seen it, watch it! (ASAP)

 

[Driftster]

Hero....Wow..

I never thought I wouldn't like a Jet Li movie until hero...but..Terantino proved me wrong yet again!