Sin City

[SeattleUte]

While most of the rest of you were watching the priesthood session I was drowning my sorrows over the Hoyas' untimely demise in a finger of Single Malt Scotch and Sin City, which I had not seen before. Anyway, here's the deal on Sin City.

First, don't be offended by the violence. It's stylized, spoofish, and in some ways it is a brilliant parody of comic book violence. (I do have a taste of sorts for violent movies and novels, but see my rant against Departed's gratuitous violence.)

Second, it's very funny in parts, and the violence is integral to this, in my view. It's the type of humor that you have to see and if explained is missed, so I won't try. But I did laugh out loud at some ostensibly gory scenes.

Finally, as to the overall quality of the movie, while I found it very stylish, original, and in parts well written (i.e., funny) and acted (I've always really liked Micky Rourke and Bruce Willis, and they worked for me here), ultimately the movie was oddly unsatisfying to me.

Specifically, I loved the first half, then it fast ran out of gas for me. My favorite story was the one about the ugly hulk (Rourke) avenging the murdered prostitute who gave him one night of pure joy. I thought that was very funny and overall well done. I thought the first part of the Bruce Willis story was very entertaining. The movie's opening scene was gorgeous.

But after the story about the big hulk ended diminishing returns set in quickly. I'm not sure why. It was an odd experience to really like the first half of a movie, with discrete episodes in and of themselves short stories/short films, and then find so little to like about the last half. Maybe you can only get so much aesthetic satisfaction out of a comic book.

Overall, just based on the first parts of the movie, I'd say you shouldn't miss it. Thumbs up but not way up.