i am confused by this one part in the NYT sin city review

It was a little bit draining after a while (I don't tend to read those comics one after another.) It's quite stylishly done though and Mickey Rourke was at his absolute OTT best. I agree that Owen would perhaps not be who I would have cast (he looks the part fine, but the accent's a bit off.) I predict there will be a sequel ("A Dame To Kill For", "Family Business" and the recent-ish one I can't remember) before long.

Sequels seem more than likely; Miller, Rodriguez and EVERY actor attached has made it clear they'd love to do more.

I know all three of the Sin City books well enough that I was able to quote most of the movie as it was being said (NO I DIDN'T BUT I COULDA) and I was mesmorized by the frame by frame translation. I expect this to be phenomenally popular and hope that speaks well to the possibility of more "adult" (read: R rated and edgy; not just tits and blood) comic book movies.

"The Hard Goodbye" >>> "That Yellow Bastard" >> "The Big Fat Kill"

That Elijah Wood character seemed to have been teleported in from some completely different milieu - his strange powers and proclivities didn't seem to fit in with the film noir "naked city" Gothamesque vibe - but perhaps that made him all the more compelling. And the Mickey Rourke character (although I didn't know it was him until the credits, thanks to heavy make-up) sort of out-Arnolds Arnold - or the kind of pulp roles that Arnold used to do before he got too classy - stuff like "Predator" and "Commando" where his body becomes another special effect - and he did the best voice-overs of any of the protagonists. (Voice-over being a narrative technique which I prefer to be used sparingly, I think it was perhaps a bit overdone in this movie - which is a frequent pitfall of adaptations from written forms.)

Thematically it reminded me of Kill Bill - with vengeance being a thread that ran throughout all three episodes. However, whereas the Uma Thurman character in Kill Bill was content merely to kill her enemies - using violence and brutality, sure, but not dwelling on the inflicting of pain much more than necessary - the characters in Sin City seemed happy with nothing less than brutal torture of their enemies before killing them. It was the glorification of sadism, I think, more than the blood and gore, that made me feel a bit uneasy about the film - especially when the audience seems to laugh at the wrong moments.

My first thought coming home was that I loved it but didn't know if I ever want to see it again, but I'm getting the urge. It's kind of PoMo horror movie crossed with a "Roadrunner" cartoon.

http://us.movies1.yimg.com/movies.yahoo.com/images/hv/photo/movie_pix/dimension_films/sin_city/brittany_murphy/sincity2.jpg

http://us.movies1.yimg.com/movies.yahoo.com/images/hv/photo/movie_pix/dimension_films/sin_city/brittany_murphy/sincity2.jpg

also, she's wearing a symbol from Frank Miller's "Give Me Liberty" series on that earring...

http://www.capalert.com/capreports/sincity.htm

Note that management of the local theater, the Driftwood Theater 6 has implemented special controls to allow no one under 17 to enter the auditorium showing Sin City unless their parent(s) or legal guardian accompanies them into the auditorium. Tickets sales will be closely monitored and checked at the door of the auditorium. Even adult siblings may not be allowed to escort their under 17 siblings. Management suspects this film might have been one MPAA vote away from NC-17. Granted, the MPAA guidelines are not law but Driftwood is committed to ensuring a family-oriented service and supporting parental controls. I am proud of the management of the Driftwood Theaters for their bold stance which is apparently not often taken by other theater owners.

http://www.capalert.com/capreports/sincitydata.gif

Wanton Violence/Crime (W)

multiple bullet impacts with blood, splatter and body part loss
multiple instances of slicings, lacerations, incisions, impalements, avulsions and amputations
cartoon images of firearm and blade assaults
child abduction by a pedophile
fist fighting
assault with metal pipe
gunfire cutting off forearm and to the male privates
scene of multiple gunfire injuries, graphic
scene of multiple gunfire killings, graphic
threat to kill, repeatedly
action violence, repeatedly
planning murder, repeatedly
assault on police, multiple, graphic
assault to eyes
firearm threat, repeatedly
pistol whipping, repeatedly, graphic
gunfire to privates
dragging man by car with face against the pavement
attempted murder by car, numerous times with sight of victim being thrown and bouncing each time
attempted gunfire murder, repeatedly
surviving impossible gunfire injuries that would result in death, repeatedly
assault with sledge hammer, graphic
heads of five disembodied women mounted as trophies, victims of cannibalism, repeatedly
woman speaking of man who had eaten her hand while she watched
assault with a rock
assault with axe to the private parts
many gunfire injuries of varying severity, repeatedly
gore, repeatedly
beating assault
man hitting a woman, repeatedly
double amputation
dog eating stubs of amputations
severed head, repeatedly, sometimes talking/moving
man kissing severed head
beating with baseball bats
talk of eating women
arm breaking assault
electrocution execution
many threats of many kinds
illegal flight to avoid lawful capture
firearms for offense, many
killing/injuring with slicing weapons, repeatedly, some graphic
beheading
more amputation
gushing/splattering of blood, repeatedly
impalement injuries, repeatedly, some graphic
bodies strewn about
slicing up five bodies to be able to fit them into a car trunk
semiautomatic pistol slide rack impaled into forehead
dead bodies talking
assault by strangulation of woman
another severed head, repeatedly, sometimes talking
knife impalements, repeatedly
gunfire to kill, repeatedly
biting gore
brutality, repeatedly
victim joking with spear and arrows protruding through him
blood lust
extortion with wife's life
beating gore, repeatedly
severed finger
admission of contemplating suicide
threat to kill with broken window pane glass
manually ripping male private parts off a man

Impudence/Hate (I)

76 uses of the three/four letter word vocabulary
lusting for murder
wish to kill
lies, repeatedly
stuffing head in toilet with feces to intimidate, twice
calling murder an art
"Power comes by lying"
sadism
torture with whip as "foreplay"

Sexual Immorality (S)

graphically descriptive talk of rape and murder of an 11 year old girl
making out
intercourse with nudity
nudity, upper female, repeatedly
nudity, female rear, repeatedly, some close-up
sex talk
thong nudity, repeatedly
homosexual reference
ghosting of female anatomy through thin clothing, repeatedly
translucent nudity
woman as toys
sensuous dance, repeatedly
dressing to maximize the female form and/or skin exposure, repeatedly
nude woman with appendages hiding gender-specifics
anatomical references, repeatedly
man and woman in bed together
cohabitation
sexual threats
camera angle to force viewer on private parts, repeatedly
prostitutes, many and prostitute dress, repeatedly
soliciting prostitution, repeatedly
talk of showing privates to each other
offer of sex, repeatedly
inappropriate touch
pedophile
threat of sexual torture
full male nudity with privates hidden by shadows, repeatedly, many angles
sexual innuendo

Drugs/Alcohol (D):

smoking, repeatedly
drinking, repeatedly
drunkenness, repeatedly
bar, repeatedly
booze, repeatedly
abuse of prescription medication

Offense to God (O)

"Goldy [a prostitute] worked the clergy"
speaking of eating not only flesh but souls as well
name calling with "fool" [Matt. 5:22]
eight uses of God's name in vain with the four letter expletive and six without

Murder/Suicide (M)

gunfire murder, at least 13 individual plus a multiple, graphic
axe to forehead murder, graphic
neck twist murder
beating murder, at least two, graphic
squeezing head murder
blade murders, at least six, graphic
arrow murder, at least three, graphic
murder by slicing off top of head, graphic
gunfire suicide, graphic

oh noes! "squeezing head murder"!

i really like most of the actors and it was a lot of fun seeing them do what they do in this movie.

mickey rourke was the best. definitely the strongest segment and he KILLED the VO.

-- Amateur(ist)

maybe you haven't seen much pornography.

To put it another way: The question for Rosario isn't "omg, you played a prostitute, that must have been hard, eh?" but "geeze isn't it corny that somebody is so out of touch with what an actual prostitute's life is like that they when they stage a gang of prostitutes they basically look like Tekken fighters as dressed by Hot Topic?". I know the knee jerk response is Dude, it's a comic book what do you expect? to which I would reply "the plot of your comic book makes the way you think about women and the way you think about yourself extremely obvious, and the relentless violence of that vision and the virgin/whore clichés that drive your fantasies seem really obvious and worn-out".

the film didn't seem to have the conviction which would inspire me to be offended; it just left me feeling indifferent and a little chagrined.

The friend that I saw this with (milton) pointed out that a lot of Miller's lines read well on the page but sound corny when read aloud by actors- I haven't read the original comics- do other people think that this is true?

as they say.

but, this is exactly the point i was making.

The lines are pretty corny on the page too, but obv everything sounds cornier when you are actually hearing them read aloud. Both the comix and the movie kind of play the corniness for yuks too.

I'm still amazed that Frank Miller's leather/German fetish made it through intact. Not just the iron crosses, but the swastikas too! I've never completely unraveled what he's going at with it, and I don't think anyone's going to be able to analyze it through this film alone. His imfamous Batman story, "The Dark Knight Returns" has this element as well.