Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014)

Nice effects though.

Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Of course I was going to seize the opportunity to use this amazing poster of the gorgeous Eva Green for this post. I re-watched the first Sin City the other day and recalled how much I enjoyed the style and the different stories and characters portrayed in it. The sequel was a long time coming but when I initially saw it I thought it was rather disappointing and far off the standard of the first. I still kind of feel that way but hey I might as well share why this time.The sequel is shared in the same format as the first with a few stories, some take place prior to the events of the corresponding segments in the first film, others afterwards. There are character changes (most notably a switch of Josh Brolin for Clive Owen) but many from the first film return. There are also a few steamy addition like Jun Temple and the very SEXY Eva Green. I wasn't sure I wanted a sequel because like most sequels, I thought it would pale in comparison to the original. This is the case with this film.Some of the segments are entertaining. Others not so much. For all the style and blood and violence this film offers, the stories can't help but feel dull. The A Dane to Kill For segment was fabulous looking and so well performed by the sultry Eva Green, but the rest itself was overlong and dreary. The final segment and showdown between Nancy Callahan and Roark was also disappointing. The film and segments definitely could have used more thought out writing.The film is style stylistically excellent. Its a joy to look at on screen and still has an excellent comic book neo-noir feel to it. The bloody violence is still on point. The main pitfall is not being able to avoid to cap on the stories and brilliance in the stories of the first film. It wasn't without effort, but Robert Rodriguez has still yet to make a good sequel (at least in my honest opinion). Its still a decent to good film but it could have been much better.7/10

After the original 'Sin City' it was no surprise that there was a sequel; the only surprise is that it didn't come sooner. Once again we get three interwoven stories: all involving Kadie's saloon.One story sees Johnny, the illegitimate son of Senator Roark, win some money on the slot machines at Kadie's before going into the back room with waitress Marcie. Here he joins the poker game and beats Roark. He and Marcie celebrate with the winnings but he soon learns that the senator doesn't like to lose and the fact that Johnny is his son doesn't save him from a bullet in the knee and a broken hand. Seriously injured Johnny only has one plan; get well enough to beat his father again.The next story, told in flashback, shows us some of PI Dwight McCarthy's past; he meets former lover, Ava, in Kadie's and she asks him to forgive her for leaving him and how her husband is violent. The meeting is interrupted when her husband's chauffeur turns up and takes her away. He follows but ends up being beaten for his troubles; he returns again, this time with Marv, and kills the husband… only then does he learn that Ava has played him like she plays all men… now he is in real danger.Finally in the third story Nancy has hit rock bottom, unable to come to terms with the death of Detective Hartigan, the man who saved her more than once and decides to take her revenge against Senator Roark. At the same time he has come to the conclusion that she is a danger. Inevitably things get bloody.This film has the same fantastic look of the first; black and white with splashes of colour; unfortunately it lacks a certain something… in the original film there were characters I cared about; here they were somehow less engaging. It didn't help that one of the main characters was played by a different actor; Josh Brolin replacing Clive Owen as Dwight. Of the three stories the tale of Dwight and Ava was the most interesting; Eva Green doing a fine job as femme fatale Ava… a character with a real film noir appeal. Johnny's story was the second most interesting; I really liked Joseph Gordon-Levitt's portrayal of the character and the story didn't end as I expected. Nancy's story was the weakest; perhaps because I didn't like just how far she had fallen but also I'm not convinced that we needed Hartigan's ghost watching over her. The action is violent as one might expect but the comic book aesthetic makes it less disturbing that it might have been. Overall this was a decent enough film but a bit of a disappointment after the first.

Hollywood's dirty little fingerprints are all over this sad sequel. Everything that made the first movie interesting and unique and compelling was painfully recycled in the sequel. The first half hour was pretty good actually, it seemed to pick up where the first one left off, different story, different characters but with the same noire backdrop and narrative. If I had to guess, the people who started off with this flick wanted to make a great follow up to the original but got screwed over by the studio suits seeking to remake the same movie while 'amping it up' in the process. Virtually all the same characters from the original make at least a cameo in the 2nd one...Why? I still can't figure that out because they contribute absolutely nothing to the story in the slightest. I think the suits decided that the average idiot movie goer likes to see characters that they remember and that's all there was to it. The worst part? It seems that Jessica Alba's agent demanded that she get at least 5 'stripper' scenes in the film so she could show off her assets. That alone wouldn't be the worst thing ever but they also had to give her actual lines and lets face it, she's probably the worst actress in existence today so watching her try to act is excruciating. But even if she was just gyrating on stage it would still have tainted the story because it was just way too much and served zero purpose other than to showcase her. The one high point of the film was that Eva Green wears little to nothing most of her time on screen which is delightful. Sadly it's not enough to save a crap movie. I was so disappointed by this abortion of a film, I was just hoping for a decent sequel, nothing amazing...and it disappointed virtually every step of the way.

Preparation for the sequel was long and committed. Rodriguez worked on other projects which, in truth, were of special artistic value, or are they just an example of creativity high-aestheticism trash, but there were many, and should the toil. Second part, named after one of the stories, comes a few years too late, so that it is not the clearest intention why he had done, and why now. Maybe Rodriguez just socialized with Miller, perhaps this is his desperate attempt to return to the first league, though spent and out of ideas, and maybe only two of them decided to comply with the fans. All in all, A Dame To Kill For is most recycled Sin City concept. Do not bring a lot of news, and those passed'm not sure how good or meaningful. First, there is a 3D, as the picture of the time, the evolution of film or whatever.