[Review] Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014)

cast: Jessica Alba, Rosario Dawson, Jaime King, Jude Ciccolella, Powers Boothe, Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis,Eva Green, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Josh Brolin, Jamie Chung, Dennis Haysbert, Marton Csokas, Christopher Lloyd, Julia Garner, Juno Temple, Ray Liotta, Stacy Keach, Christopher Meloni, Alexa PenaVega, Lady Gaga, Jeremy Piven, Crystal McCahill.

directed by: Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller

“Death is just like life in Sin City. It always wins”

Nine years have passed since Rodriguez and Miller decided to launch the sequel for Sin City on the big-screen. Many right now say it’s been too long and that’s why the movie isn’t doing so well at the box-office. I say horse-shit. The fans, the movie goers have tossed and turned for this movie, the fact it took nine years to see the light of day is not the cause of box-office failure. Let’s talk about the bland taste in our mouths, let’s talk about seeing Eva Green doing again and again the same role of a screen-vamp, let’s talk about Jessica Alba finally doing a good role – that’s rare lately for her – and why the Hell Lady Gaga has to be part of this extravaganza?

Let’s get out the facts. The movie’s plot is based on “Just Another Saturday Night”, Miller has created especially for this movie “The Long Bad Night” and “Nancy’s Last Dance”. It’s a play, a mix of film-noir and comic book look brought on screen by the power of CGI, Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller. The fans will understand the subtle nuances, the blending of red, black and white. Visually the movie has done it again. It looks good and wants you to feel good watching but do we feel good staying in our seats and starring at Eva Green’s bosom?

Eva Green is Ava Lord. A vamp, a killer, a bitch, basically the typical dame of the genre who chews lines and men and spits them out while flaunting her naked flesh. If anything else in the world, Eva Green has no problem showing skin and having fun with a part. Wait where did we see that again? Maybe in 300: Rise of an Empire or how the movie should have been called 300: Artemisia’s Movie? Or Dark Shadows or How Eve Green stole the show from Johnny Depp? For the past years, ever since Green had her break-through with “The Dreamers” this is what she does whether is on the big screen on TV. She plays bitches. Yes, that’s the word and let’s no be scared of using it. I’ve seen her breast so much that I can recognize her cleavage in a split second. She loves this type of role and yes, she does a great job at being the bitch. I want her to try something else and get out of her comfort zone. I know, her looks, her pout, the way she stares and the way her lips curve in a wicked grin, she’s made to play a vixen. Try a cute babe, try anything else for the next three years besides a kick-ass vicious woman who can break any man or woman and get out with her manicure intact. Ava Lord is the role in which Green showed she’s comfortable with the type-cast. I don’t want her to feel comfortable.

On the bright side, Jessica Alba finally shows that acting isn’t’ a mystery for her. Or the next best thing. Nancy is going crazy, Nancy wants revenge and thank God for small mercies – Josh Brolin really made a dull role compared to Clive Owen’s take and Mickey Rourke at this point is a walking talking type-cast in the roles of psycho brawlers – Powers Boothe can save the movie.

Senator Roake is fun. Fun in a “I shall kill your family, your dog, your friends and watch you suffer” that kind of fun.  Boothe pulled out the old school routine and literally took everyone in the movie to the school of villains including Eva Green. He has fun and it doesn’t feel like it’s put upon him to unleash a mystical beast of acting talent. He toys with the city, he toys with poor Johnny (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and eventually he toys and breaks sweet Nancy. If you can’t be good, be bad and have some kicks while you’re at it. That’s the name of the game.

If someone out-there feels the need to take Sin City: A Dame to Kill seriously he or she forgets who is in charge of this projects and the origins of this tale. It’s a tribute feel good, blood, gore, sex and revenge tribute to the film noir genre from the pages of a great comic book. The worst thing that happened is the dull pace of the events, the over the top lines even for this type of movie. “A Dame to Kill For” act should have been made shorter in favor of “Nancy’s Last Dance”. Give us more Roarke, more Johnny, more Nancy! Brolin, Rourke, Green and Dawson took apathy and little needed exultation to a new level and killed the mood. It bleed to death on the concrete floor while rain poured on the mangled corpse.

Robert Rodriguez made basically everything here from directing duties to cinematography, editing and music. This movie should feel like his pride and joy but it feels incomplete.

You might notice some familiar faces even if they come and go faster than you’d like: Ray Liotta, Jeremy Piven, Christopher Lloyd, Juno Temple, Stacy Keach, Christopher Meloni, Marton Csokas. They come and go in the city that doesn’t sleep.

“Sin City: A Dame to Kill For” could have been brilliant but it was slain by a string of bad choices cast-wise and the main tale left in charge of these actors. It’s not the script, it’s the performance and sometimes the best becomes the worst.

Edge and Back: 6/10