SIN CITY : A DAME TO KILL FOR - Tuesday 23rd September 2014

Before seeing 'SIN CITY : A DAME TO KILL FOR' at my local multiplex earlier this week, I had to reappraise myself with the original film from 2005 that set the bar so very high and introduced us to Frank Miller's gritty, dark, menacing characters inhabiting Basin City where 'Sin City' is based. Directors Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller back then brought us in to the monochromed world of classic film noir straight from the pages of the graphic novel in all its exaggerated, stylised, violent, sexy beauty. With a strong cast, sharp dialogue, and never before seen imagery on the big screen, the bar was cast high. And so with high expectations for the follow-up and a wait of almost ten years the final analysis shows that 'Sin City : A Dame to Kill For' can only but limbo under the bar of its predecessor, let alone rise above it!

Again, as before, this next instalment is based on four stories - 'Just Another Saturday Night', 'The Long Bad Night, Parts 1&2', 'A Dame to Kill For' and 'Nancy's Last Dance', and we see a number of characters from the first film return this time around - a few played by different actors. The time in which these four chapters play out also weaves back and forth, and the story behind 'A Dame to Kill For' in this film plays out before 'The Big Fat Kill' in the first film with two different actors playing the same character in both . . . so you need to pay attention (Clive Owen then, and now Josh Brolin as Dwight McCarthy, and Michael Clarke-Duncan then, and now Dennis Haysbert as Manute)!

'Just Another Saturday Night' opens the film and once again we meet hulking 300lb meathead Marv (Mickey Rourke) semi-conscious by the side of the road amid a two car pile up and a bunch of strewn dead bodies. Not remembering how he got there or how he came by the nice coat and gloves he is wearing he can recall slugging down some beers at 'Kadies Saloon' and watching Nancy Callahan dance. Sensing though that something ain't quite right he leaves and immediately comes across four young frat boys outside dousing a homeless guy with petrol and brandishing a cigarette lighter. Marv in his own subtle way quickly dispenses with the gang of four and slits the ringleaders throat, which brings him back to the coat and how he acquired it.

'The Long Bad Night Parts 1&2' sandwiches 'A Dame to Kill For' and here we are introduced to young cocky gambler Johnny (Joseph Gordon Levitt) who arrives in Basin City and heads to Kadies Saloon where a high stakes card game is playing out behind closed doors. He initially has success on two poker machines thanks to his Lady Luck, a dancer at the Club called Marcie. They enter the game and take their place opposite Senator Roark (Powers Booth) - the kingpin of Basin City and the most powerful man in the State. Playing for high stakes Johnny cleans out the Senator and leaves taking his Lady Luck for a night on the town to celebrate. On the way back to their hotel they are set upon by the Senator and his henchmen who break three of Johnny's fingers with pliers and shoot him in the leg. Leaving him by the side of the road in agony, Johnny swears revenge. In Part 2, Johnny gets himself fixed up - the bullet removed and his fingers reset and splinted in time for another high stakes game with the Senator the next night, so that he can exact his revenge. . . maybe!

'A Dame to Kill For' reintroduces us to Dwight McCarthy this time played by Josh Brolin struggling with his demons, his turbulent past and his memories of violence and death. Trying to make a fresh start he works as a Private Detective for hire, and is reacquainted with former lover Ava Lord (Eva Green) four years after they split, and she subsequently married wealthy tycoon Damien Lord. Following a clandestine meeting at Kadies Saloon we are reintroduced to Manute (Danis Haysbert) who is the Minder of Ava Lord who she claims is mistreated physically and mentally by her evil corrupt husband. Determined to rescue her and reignite the old flame that once existed between them, Dwight takes the law into his own hands and teams up with Marv to get the job done and overcome the equally hulking Minder Manute. Things don't go well back at the Lord mansion - people die, the husband murdered, the Police get involved and that all goes wrong too! In the end justice is served at the end of a gun, but not before startling revelations, and death, destruction and mayhem all around!

In the final chapter 'Nancy's Last Dance' we meet the grown nineteen year old Nancy Callahan (Jessica Alba) ten years on from being saved by John Hartigan (Bruce Willis) in 'Sin City'. Nancy is now a dancer at Kadies Salloon and has crawled inside a bottle of late drowning her sorrows in an attempt to forget her one true love (Hartigan) for whom she has held a candle all these years even though he is dead by his own hand at the end of the first film. Hartigan returns as a ghost - unseen and unheard by Nancy or anyone else, and over looking her he sees her pain and is powerless to do anything about it. Nancy wants revenge on Senator Roark for what his son did to her when she was nine and for causing the death (indirectly) of John Hartigan. She enlists the help of Marv to dispense with Roark once and for all and so the two mount a bloody assault on the Roark Estate.

Once more Rodriguez and Miller have amassed a solid ensemble cast that includes, in addition to those already mentioned, Rosario Dawson, Ray Liotta, Stacy Keach, Christopher Lloyd, Jeremy Piven, Christopher Meloni and Lady Gaga. All the touchstones are there from the original movie - classic film noir graphic novel vibe; excellent on-screen graphics; some great one-liners especially from Marv; a gritty dangerous dark underworld where it nearly always rains; and exaggerated images and scenes emphasising the style, the look and the feel of a place you really don't wanna go!

Despite all this - I couldn't help thinking that this was over cooked unlike its predecessor. The violence is gratuitously graphic and when you've seen ten on-screen decapitations you've seen them all! Great gushing arcs of spurting blood - deep red or bright white when another arrow pierces a skull; or a head is removed from its shoulders; or bullets rip through an arm, a chest, a head; or a Samurai Sword slices and dices through a limb, a neck, a chest or a stomach; or bodies are thrown asunder from fast moving cars, speeding motor bikes, or from third storey windows. Sometimes less is more, and we saw that to better effect in 'Sin City' and this time by adding more brutality and more T&A to move the plot along and tell us that life in Sin City is cheap, fast and ugly Rodriguez and Miller have done themselves a disservice. 'Sin City : A Dame to Kill For' is certainly worth a look for a whole bunch of reasons, but it does fall short of the expectations from the pair that brought us the first ground breaking film.

-Steve, at OdeonOnline-