Movie Reviews
What better than to sit inside watching movies while it's baking hot outside?
Saw 'Sin City' a couple of days ago. I know it's supposed to be flawed but I thought I'd give it a go. Nice to see comic adaptations are getting better. Quite enjoyed 'Hellboy' when it came out. 'Batman Begins' was good, for the first two thirds at any rate. Of course the 'X-Men' has been doing well, although seems to be following Mick Hucknall's quality/career trajectory. So to 'Sin City.' It is a Rodriguez film and so has some sub-Tarantino touches (who is credited as Guest Director) as you'd expect. The sparse use of colour is quite effective. Marv has traces of the 'Dark Knight' from Frank Miller's previous comic. The comic book 'physics' is good fun, cars bouncing around etc. In the end it tries too hard. There's too much going on, with nothing of substance. The good guys are more interesting than the bad guys. Bad move, and one which scuppered Batman Begins in my opinion, despite Cillian Murphy's valiant attempts otherwise. Come on - Frodo as Hannibal Lecter - really.
'Walk The Line' was the other film I saw. Good. Of course it's your standard music bio-pic. It is done very well and hits all the points you'd expect. If you've seen 'Ray' you've essentially seen this. Tough upbringing. Writes a few songs. Gets discovered. Takes some drugs. Overcomes drug addiction. Stick a bit of romance in there and the obligatory bit where he writes the big hit in his backyard or whatever. 'I shot a man in Reno, just to see him...cry?' no that's not right... wait... die. Brilliant.
Saw 'Sin City' a couple of days ago. I know it's supposed to be flawed but I thought I'd give it a go. Nice to see comic adaptations are getting better. Quite enjoyed 'Hellboy' when it came out. 'Batman Begins' was good, for the first two thirds at any rate. Of course the 'X-Men' has been doing well, although seems to be following Mick Hucknall's quality/career trajectory. So to 'Sin City.' It is a Rodriguez film and so has some sub-Tarantino touches (who is credited as Guest Director) as you'd expect. The sparse use of colour is quite effective. Marv has traces of the 'Dark Knight' from Frank Miller's previous comic. The comic book 'physics' is good fun, cars bouncing around etc. In the end it tries too hard. There's too much going on, with nothing of substance. The good guys are more interesting than the bad guys. Bad move, and one which scuppered Batman Begins in my opinion, despite Cillian Murphy's valiant attempts otherwise. Come on - Frodo as Hannibal Lecter - really.
'Walk The Line' was the other film I saw. Good. Of course it's your standard music bio-pic. It is done very well and hits all the points you'd expect. If you've seen 'Ray' you've essentially seen this. Tough upbringing. Writes a few songs. Gets discovered. Takes some drugs. Overcomes drug addiction. Stick a bit of romance in there and the obligatory bit where he writes the big hit in his backyard or whatever. 'I shot a man in Reno, just to see him...cry?' no that's not right... wait... die. Brilliant.
posted by Ten-Bob Dylan at 2:21 pm
2 Comments:
What I particularly didn't like about Sin City, not that you're asking, was that it took all your basic film noir elements and tried to ramp everything up to 11. So they weren't just hookers with hearts of gold, but samurai sword wielding hookers in bondage gear. With hearts of gold.
And somehow, because it was all there hanging out for you, it made it less interesting. The tension in the great noirs is all about what's not being said. Whereas with Sin City everything was said, said again and then given it's own voice-over.
Not a bad film, the comicy-ness of it was well done, but so much less cool than it thinks it is. Tarantino cool rather than Bogart cool.
Absolutely. That's what Tarantino does. Sometimes it works - Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction - sometimes it doesn't - Kill Bill, From Dusk Till Dawn. I agree that in this case it doesn't work. It does make you think what they might have done with 'The Dark Knight Returns' though.
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