Sin City
Sin City ★★ Frank Miller's Sin City 2005 (R)
Rodriguez teamed with comic legend Frank Miller to co-direct this overly literal adaptation of Miller's black-and-white crime noir series. Set in the hellishly corrupt Basin City, the plot bounces between a menagerie of unsavory anti-heroes, including Marv (Rourke), a lovable thug bent on avenging a hooker's murder; Dwight (Owen), a moralistic man-with-a-past; and Hartigan (Willis), a cop who spent eight years in prison to protect a virtuous stripper (Alba). More of a slideshow than a film, you'll marvel at how closely it resembles the comic, though the directors' fundamentalist zeal for their source material tests the audience's patience throughout. Acting and pacing are ignored while Rodriguez uses cheap-looking CGI to slavishly reproduce exact panels of Miller's art. Fanboy fervor gone too far. 124m/B DVD, UMD . US Jessica Alba, Devon Aoki, Alexis Bledel, Rosario Dawson, Benicio Del Toro, Michael Clarke Duncan, Carla Gugino, Josh Hartnett, Rutger Hauer, Jaime (James) King, Michael Madsen, Brittany Murphy, Clive Owen, Mickey Rourke, Nick Stahl, Bruce Willis, Elijah Wood, Marley Shelton, Powers Boothe, Nicky Katt, Makenzie Vega, Arie Verveen, Tommy Nix, Jude Ciccolella, Rick Gomez, Lisa Marie Newmyer, Nick Offerman; D: Robert Rodriguez, Frank Miller; C: Robert Rodriguez; M: Robert Rodriguez, Graeme Revell, John Debney.