Review: Sin City: A Dame to Kill For

Several vignettes set in the seedy, noirish Basin City. Dwight (Josh Brolin) gets involved with a sexy former flame (Eva Green) who tells him her husband (Marton Csokas, bland as usual) is abusive. Johnny (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a cocky gambler who just won’t quit trying to beat corrupt Senator Roark (Powers Boothe, Satanically glowering), who doesn’t like to lose. Stripper Nancy (Jessica Alba) has her own beef with the evil Senator, who previously killed her guardian angel Hartigan (Bruce Willis, as kind of a ghost), and has bloody revenge in mind…that is, when she’s not three sheets to the wind. Also turning up from time to time is hulking brute Marv, who has his own troubles, but later lends Dwight a hand in taking down another hulking brute, the seemingly indestructible Manute (Dennis Haysbert), Green’s henchman. Jude Ciccolella plays Roark’s chief advisor, Christopher Meloni and Jeremy Piven are cops (the former of whom gets ensnared by Green, the latter of whom is apparently the character Michael Madsen previously played, but you can’t tell), Rosario Dawson is back as tough streetwalker Gail, while Jamie Cheung fills in for the apparently pregnant Devon Aoki as samurai Miho, and Ray Liotta and Lady Gaga have small roles as a volatile and philandering businessman and waitress, respectively. Stacy Keach and Christopher Lloyd have memorable cameos as a grotesque mob boss and junkie doctor, respectively.

 

It’s been a long wait (plans for a sequel date back to the first film’s theatrical release in 2005!), and this 2014 follow-up to “Sin City” from Robert Rodriguez (“Once Upon a Time in Mexico”, “Machete”) and Frank Miller (creator of the graphic novel series) is certainly an inferior product. The stories are uneven, and the freshness is obviously gone. The return appearances by Mickey Rourke and Jessica Alba are unwelcome, and since Willis’ character died last time out, bringing him back adds absolutely nothing to the film. I can see a storyline reason for it, but I still think it’s a mistake. Alba’s the bigger problem, though. She’s not very convincing, doesn’t perform the most important duty of her character’s occupation, and her storyline with Powers Boothe’s Roark is one storyline too many. It belongs in its own film, as here it is far too short to work.

 

However, there’s still quite a bit to like here, even if it’s not as good as the first film and Jessica Alba still plays a stripper who frustratingly never strips (And unlike “Machete”, Rodriguez doesn’t give us CGI nudity, which is a shame) in a city called Sin City for cryin’ out loud. Aside from an astoundingly evil Powers Boothe reprising his role as Senator Roark (who interacts with several characters throughout), the standouts this time are some of the newcomers; Josh Brolin, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Eva Green, Stacy Keach, Christopher Lloyd, and Dennis Haysbert (in the role previously played by the late Michael Clarke Duncan). Brolin, playing the part previously essayed by Clive Owen (but for a story set before the character had plastic surgery to look like Owen), is spot-on and once again reminds me of Nick Nolte. He may even be superior to Owen in the role of Dwight, actually. Dennis Haysbert gets a helluva physically imposing introduction…but unfortunately, after the enjoyable build-up he gets pummelled in an instant by Mickey Rourke. Rourke’s Marvin shares good chemistry with Brolin’s Dwight, but it’s barely utilised and he really shouldn’t be here. Truth be told, the short nature of the stories doesn’t help Haysbert, either. Although he gets completely upstaged by Boothe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt fits into this noir world rather nicely. This is easily Eva Green’s best-ever performance as the film’s main supplier of on-screen nudity (Oh if only the rumoured Salma Hayek were cast...Green looks nice, but Hayek? Yowzers!). She was quite simply born for film noir femme fatale roles, I believe. The show is almost stolen in one mere cameo scene by the great Stacy Keach. It’s an absolutely brilliant cameo, though Keach might be awfully hard to recognise under what appears to be the most flamboyant makeup job since Dom DeLuise played Pizza the Hutt in “Spaceballs”. His unmistakable voice and scar on his lip are dead giveaways, though. Bravo there, Mr. Rodriguez and Mr. Keach, that was such a wonderful and bizarro surprise. Although he only gets one scene too, the all-too rarely seen Christopher Lloyd is interesting casting as a drug-addicted ‘doctor’ who tends to Gordon-Levitt’s wounds. It’s really nice to see Doc Brown, and he plays the scene for all it’s worth. But it’s Keach, Green, and especially Boothe (he’s so good at being bad!) you’ll remember most vividly in this.

 

In small turns, a well-cast Ray Liotta, a funny and sleazy Jeremy Piven, and the always wonderful Rosario Dawson (the one returnee I didn’t mind seeing) are all solid. However, as much as I didn’t mind Lady Gaga turning up in “Machete Kills”, I take exception to her being here. She’s fine, I just reject her on principle this time out. Also, nice try Mr. Rodriguez, but just because they’re both Asian, doesn’t mean you can fool us into believing former “Real World” hottie Jamie Cheung and Devon Aoki are the same person. Uh-uh. 

 

Overall, this is just a hair below a recommendation, but that’s still quite a comedown from the very fine original. There’s still a lot to like here, but a lot feels redundant and disappointing overall, to be honest. It wasn’t worth the wait, and the likes of Rutger Hauer, Elijah Wood, and Nick Stahl are sorely missed here (Their characters all died last time, sure, but still...)

 

Rating: C+