SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR – Will The Sequel Have You Seeing Red?

SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR – Will The Sequel Have You Seeing Red?

Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez have reunited to bring Miller’s “Sin City” graphic novels back to the screen after being away for almost a decade. New stories, new characters and new actors... Is A Dame To Kill For able to bring it all together? Read my review to find out!

Review Opinion
By NateBest - Aug 21, 2014 09:08 PM EST
Sin City: A Dame To Kill For Review


WARNING: Sin City: A Dame To Kill For is VERY violent and has no reservations having Eva Green entirely naked for the vast majority of her screen time. The film is rated R for very good reason. If that doesn’t scare you away, read on!

I’m going to be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect from Frank Miller’s Sin City: A Dame To Kill For. The original film opened in April 2005 and it’s been a VERY long time since I’ve seen it and it’s really not my type of film, other than the fact that it’s based upon comic books / graphic novels. I happened to be in Hollywood for a prior commitment, so the press screening for A Dame To Kill For sort of fell into my lap, and after it’s all said and done, I’m glad that it did. I really enjoyed the film.

Some of the stories in A Dame To Kill For are prequels to the first film, so you’ll see several characters return in this installment. Miller explains it thusly, “I tend to play around in the “Sin City” books as I am in the movies now – I bounce from one point in time to another so characters can seem to come back to life when actually, all I’ve done is go back in time.”

The film opens with fan-favorite “Just Another Saturday Night,” when Marve (Mickey Rourke) finds himself in the center of carnage as he tries to remember the preceding events.

“The Long, Bad Night” tells the tale of Johnny, a cocky young gambler (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) taking his chances with the biggest villain in Sin City, Senator Roark (Powers Boothe).



“A Dame To Kill For” is the central story for the film, but it’s actually only one story out of several featured in the film. This is the one area that may cause issues for viewers, but more on that later! “A Dame To Kill For,” features Dwight McCarth (Josh Brolin) in his final confrontation with the woman of his dreams and nightmares, Ava Lord (Eva Green). It takes place prior to “The Big Fat Kill,” which was featured in the first film, and explains how Dwight McCarthy (Josh Brolin) came to have a dramatically different face.

“Nancy’s Last Dance” follows Nancy Callahan (Jessica Alba) in the wake of John Hartigan’s (Bruce Willis) selfless suicide in the first film. Four years after Hartigan’s death, Nancy is driven insane by grief and rage. Still dancing at Kadie’s, she is a shell of her once carefree self and desperate to get revenge.

Marv is the only character who appears in all four segments of the film. The four stories are isolated from the others, other than Marv, which may not appeal to all viewers. It makes the film feel a bit disjointed… “The Long, Bad Night” and “A Dame To Kill For” were the strongest of the four. “Nancy’s Last Dance” was fun as you get to see Nancy dance several times, become a bad ass and Marv be his truly brutal self, but the story wasn’t quite as interesting as the other two. Fans of Marv and Mickey Rourke will enjoy “Just Another Saturday Night,” but I felt it was the weakest of the three.

With that being said, “The Long, Bad Night” was a very good story and had strong performances from Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Powers Boothe, but it didn’t feel like a “Sin City” story the way the others did. Those that are familiar with the Sin City comics will note that “The Long, Bad Night” is a new story that was created for the second film. I’m sure this has more than a little to do with it not fitting quite right… Rodriguez explains, “The first movie was all about being very true to the books and translating them directly to the screen. The second film we thought, ‘Let’s give them a surprise so that people can’t just go to the comic book store, buy the book and know what’s going to happen.”

New cast members for A Dame To Kill For include actors that Rodriguez has worked with closely in the past, including Josh Brolin, Jeremy Piven and Lady Gaga. Others were friends or actors Frank and Robert had long admired, such as Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ray Liotta, Stacy Keach and Christopher Meloni. Manute, originally portrayed by the late Michael Clark Duncan and Miho, played by Devon Aoki, had to be recast. Dennis Haysbert and Jamie Chung stepped in to fulfill the roles. Christopher Lloyd makes an appearance in “The Long, Bad Night” as the drug addicted back alley doctor Kroenig.

The performances were good all around. Ray Liotta was a nice surprise. Haysbert fills Manute’s shoes well, Joseph Gordon-Levitt is sure to be a new fan favorite, Alba is great, Brolin plays a very good younger version of Dwight and Rourke rocks as Marv, but nobody holds a candle to Eva Green’s “Ava Lord.” No, it’s not because she spends most of the film in the nude; although I’m sure that will earn her more than a few fans. Her performance is truly top-notch. She’ll make you love her, protect her, kill for her and even make you hate her.

Rodriguez was insistent on shooting the film in 3D rather than converting it in post-production. The entire film was shot against green screen with very little in the way of set pieces, primarily tables, chairs and doors for the actors to use when entering rooms. The virtual Sin City world is all digital, which brings up the second area that movie-goers may have an issue with the film; the highly stylized black and white world (with splashes of red, blue and the green eyes of Ava Lord) of Sin City will not be for everyone, after all, it’s a VERY viscious place, but the virtual world may be one of the things that fans of the film enjoy the most.

Sin City: A Dame To Kill For Review


A Dame To Kill For succeeds in transporting you back to a fantastic world that is all its own and introduces you to some truly evil characters. I wouldn’t take my family on a vacation to Sin City, but I thoroughly enjoyed imy brief visit there. If you’re a Frank Miller Fan, a fan of the 300 films, or a fan of the original Sin City, you’ll like Sin City: A Dame To Kill For.

Eva Green and Jessica Alba are both dames to kill for.


 



Check Out My Interview With A Dame To Kill For's Dennis Haysbert / Manute!





Co-directors Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez reunite to bring Miller's visually stunning "Sin City" graphic novels back to the screen in 3D in Frank Miller's Sin City: A Dame To Kill. In a town where justice doesn't prevail, the desperate want vengeance and ruthless murderers find themselves with vigilantes on their heels. Their paths cross when they converge on Sin City’s famous Kadie's Club Pecos... The film opens with fan-favorite “Just Another Saturday Night,” when Marv (Mickey Rourke) finds himself in the center of carnage as he tries to remember the events leading up to it. “The Long, Bad Night” tells the tale of Johnny, a cocky young gambler (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) on a winning streak taking his chances with the biggest bastard of them all, Senator Roark (Powers Boothe). The central story, Miller’s critically acclaimed "A Dame To Kill For," has Dwight McCarthy (Josh Brolin) facing his final confrontation with the woman of his dreams and his nightmares, Ava Lord (Eva Green). “Nancy’s Last Dance" follows Nancy Callahan (Jessica Alba) in the wake of John Hartigan’s (Bruce Willis) death. On a downward spiral filled with grief, she will stop at nothing to get revenge.

Frank Miller's Sin City: A Dame To Kill For opens August 22.
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DrewDeLand
DrewDeLand - 8/21/2014, 9:38 PM
I'm so excited to see Jessica Alba :)
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BabyGroot
BabyGroot - 8/21/2014, 9:43 PM
I'm excited to see Eva Green

BabyGroot
BabyGroot - 8/21/2014, 9:46 PM
But let's not be too picky.

TheGambitFreak
TheGambitFreak - 8/21/2014, 9:56 PM
Dammit, Nathan. Now I'm just humming Red by Chevelle.
VikingKing
VikingKing - 8/21/2014, 10:17 PM
It's SO good. And Eva is SO naked.
SteveBosell
SteveBosell - 8/21/2014, 10:48 PM
Pass. I'm not a fan of mixing porn and entertainment.
mgeoff88
mgeoff88 - 8/21/2014, 11:28 PM
Nate, you forgot about the very lovely Rosario Dawson:

skeebolistic84
skeebolistic84 - 8/21/2014, 11:30 PM
@diamondz yea I wouldn't walk in Wal-Mart with eva but from 2:00 am on down yea she can get it lol
ScottMontgomery
ScottMontgomery - 8/21/2014, 11:35 PM
I loved the film personally! I thought about writing a review for it, but eh I'm lazy... I hope we can get a third film sooner than a decade later because I love this franchise and how unique it is.
ScottMontgomery
ScottMontgomery - 8/21/2014, 11:38 PM
Marxman12
You should watch Nymphomaniac Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 than.
TheBetterKhan
TheBetterKhan - 8/21/2014, 11:43 PM
Good, review. Only thing though you kind of over exaggerated Eva Greens nude scree time. It wasn't the majority of her time. It was more like half. I just got back from it myself. It was very good, for the most part. JGL was definitely the strongest performance, in my opinion.
CherryBomb
CherryBomb - 8/22/2014, 1:11 AM
Rosario at the premiere though! Woah!
GL
GL - 8/22/2014, 1:55 AM
Boooooooobs
batz11
batz11 - 8/22/2014, 1:58 AM
I'll watch just for the nudity...
JoJo1982
JoJo1982 - 8/22/2014, 1:59 AM
I enjoyed!!! it was pretty much more of the same
And everyone is right JGL story was the best part plus the little twist they throw in it
Marv's make up was pretty distracting at time
And Eva green was a great villain too(that woman has a gorgeous body)
Snotzo
Snotzo - 8/22/2014, 2:10 AM
Unfortunately, this movie is too late to get any real traction box office wise. It waited too long and is likely this will be the last one.
Brainiac13
Brainiac13 - 8/22/2014, 3:45 AM
@Nate

When are you going to introduce a CBM app for Android/iPhone?
StrangerX
StrangerX - 8/22/2014, 3:59 AM
I get free boobs on the net
Tetrahedron
Tetrahedron - 8/22/2014, 4:52 AM
Well, clearly somebody wasn't impressed with A Dame To Kill For. ;)

McGee
McGee - 8/22/2014, 4:58 AM
Cut the malarkey, Nate!

Is it better than Wrinkles or not?


SuperPickle
SuperPickle - 8/22/2014, 5:57 AM
"Sin City: A Dame To Kill For is VERY violent and has no reservations having Eva Green entirely naked for the vast majority of her screen time."

The only sentence I read. The only sentence I needed to read.

TAKE MY MONEY!!!!!!!
yossarian
yossarian - 8/22/2014, 6:10 AM
How is Marv alive?
Archgoat
Archgoat - 8/22/2014, 6:37 AM
Eva Green is the sexiest actress in the world, just incredible. And very talented too.
yossarian
yossarian - 8/22/2014, 6:40 AM
@special - I was tracking the prequel part. So I guess some of it is an inbetweenquel?
yossarian
yossarian - 8/22/2014, 7:03 AM
@Special - Ahhh...okay. Weird. I figured Sin City all took place around the same time. It sounds like it might be better to just wait for the DVD so I can put everything in order then. Or buy the Sin City collection with that feature on a disc I am sure they will make.
Sitterson
Sitterson - 8/22/2014, 8:05 AM
Saw this last night. Good film, not as great as the original, but a fun ride nonetheless.
cipher
cipher - 8/22/2014, 8:23 AM
If I remember correctly, the order the original comics were written in was:

- The Hard Goodbye
- A Dame To Kill For
- The Big Fat Kill
- That Yellow Bastard

So, yeah. "A Dame To Kill For" is after Marv gets fried but before everything else in the first film. Alba's story was never in the original comics, and it takes place after everything else.
cipher
cipher - 8/22/2014, 8:26 AM
I should add that I'm just assuming Alba's story is after. I don't know for sure yet, I haven't seen the movie.

That's just how I've pieced it together.
cipher
cipher - 8/22/2014, 8:27 AM
Holy shit, is that what Miller looks like these days? F*ck me running.
cipher
cipher - 8/22/2014, 8:34 AM
Shit, now I'm sitting here trying to remember the exact chronology of the comics.
cipher
cipher - 8/22/2014, 9:44 AM
Ah.
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