"Sin City: A Dame to Kill For"
By Emma Wenninger
Grade: C
Frank Miller’s “Sin City: A Dame to Kill For” is not a movie you want to go see for intellectual stimulation.
If you are, however, looking for a way to turn off your brain for two hours, the “Sin City” sequel is the movie for you.
It picks up with Marv, portrayed by Mickey Rourke, lying on a gravel road.
He does not remember where he is. Then all of a sudden he does.
He was in the middle of killing some yuppie frat boys for lighting homeless people on fire.
Nice. Ironic even.
He lights a cigarette. He contemplates the larger things. He crushes the sternum of his victim with his foot, then turns to head toward Sin City.
And thus opens act one.
Sin City is actually called “Basin City,” but the “Ba” is riddled with bullet holes, to give you an idea of the gritty town we’re about to head into.
Each character at one time refers to Sin City as a woman, or a card game, or a casino or a prostitute.
It’s a mix between Los Angeles and New York, and for some reason “if you walk far enough in Sin City, you’ll find a saloon. The bad kind.”
I didn’t know there was a good kind of saloon.
I also don’t know why all the strippers strip in saloons or why old-timey Texan saloons are in a sprawling metropolis, but these are the kinds of things you need to just accept with this movie.
In line with the first “Sin City” movie, it is a series of interconnecting stories from four characters who all know each other and help each other shoot up corrupt cops, rapists and one femme fatale, Ava, played by Eva Green.
If you’re into girls, this might be the movie for you. You see, uh, a lot of Eva Green.
They are aided occasionally by the prostitutes who run Old Town, Sin City’s red light district, led by gun-toting, hot-pants wearing Gail (Rosario Dawson).
Lady Gaga is also there.
It’s meant to be a neo-film noir piece inspired by gangster films from the thirties, but the cartoony effects can come off as parody.
Still, no matter how many plot-holes you fall through or plot twists that leave you a little confused, you can’t help but have a good time.
It’s a little like watching an Axe commercial — kinda sexist, offensive if I were more sensitive, but very aware of what it is.
“Sin City: A Dame to Kill For” is a fun way to turn off your brain and watch muscled guys beat each other up.
If anything, you should go just to hear my favorite line of dialogue ever, spoken by Dwight, Josh Brolin’s husky, angst-ridden anti-hero. “I was born at night, lady, but it wasn’t last night.”
I don’t know how he didn’t laugh.
