Movie Details
| Title: | Sin City | |
| Director: | Robert Rodriguez | |
| Year: | 2005 | |
| Genre: | Comic Book | |
| Times Seen: | 4 | |
| Last Seen: | 12.25.05 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (3)
- From Dusk Till Dawn
- Machete Kills
- Once Upon A Time In Mexico
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 12.25.05 | DVD | Merry Christmas! some quotes from my dad: "THIS is the kind of movie you want to make!?" "weird movie, son" "it's snowing and they're in a convertible" |
| 10.09.05 | Alamo South Lamar | This Screening is part of event: FantasticFest 2005 In an effort to replicate the hazy sense of zombification that seeing 20 movies in 4 days on scant few hours of sleep a night brings, my write-up for the last day of Fantastic Fest 2005 will be vague and blurry. Actually, I hope it won't be, but if it is you know why. The Recut and Extended edition of Sin City started today at noon. It was scheduled at three hours, ten minutes. It was also playing on DLP that Rodriguez had supposedly come in and personally tweaked to ensure the best possible showing for us. Of course, rumors spread faster than QT6 ticket sales at film festivals, and word had it that Rodriguez was either gonna show up for Saturday's screening or Sunday's. He didn't show up Saturday. So I had several things to look forward to this morning. Unfortunately, none of them really panned out and I ended up food the whole time just to stay awake. Rodriguez didn't show up. Instead Harry introduced the film, calling us all gluttons for not seeing the separate volumes separately. Now be prepared to be overloaded with Sin City goodness as all three separated and elongated stories were shown sequentially rather than the sort-of inter-woven theatrical cut. Well, there's maybe 4 minutes of new footage, made of maybe 3 new scenes, 17 new shots, and of course 3 new title cards. I think the end credits music was new as well. That's about it. However, I will say I still appreciate the experience for getting to see this on the big screen one more time, especially in the gloriously sharp and rich contrast of DLP. The movie just ended an hour too soon is all. I can't wait for the DVD with the Austin Paramount premiere audience alternate audio track on it. Listen for me, I'm the guy in the front row who clapped when everyone else did. Since Sin City got out so early, I walked in and caught the last half of 1990: Bronx Warriors. As I mentioned previously, I love the apocalypse genre but haven't seen any of the four films they programmed for this fest. Bronx Warriors was originally one that I wouldn't be able to see due to scheduling constraints, but I had made myself feel better by adding it to my netflix queue. Seeing the last half of it sort of makes me really want to see the first half but also sort of not. Don't get me wrong, I had a great time with what I saw, but walking into the movie missing the entire set-up and every character's introduction brought a whole sense of mystery to what I saw. Who is The Ogre? What kind of name is Trash? Why is this guy wearing a nazi uniform? Zombies? And what is with this flat-chested dominatrix girl with the whip and spiky metal finger things? Maybe all of these questions are explained in the first half, maybe not. The trouble is, if they are, I'm not sure I want to know. What I do know is that this dude Trash, who I guess has some girl somewhere hidden away kidnapped/in love with him, is crying an awful lot for this dying guy. That embrace is awfully tender, at least up to the point where he breaks his neck, presumably to end his pain. In fact, I think he cries more for this guy than for the girl when she gets it. Maybe it was his brother or something... maybe. It's cool though because you watch a movie like Wild Style, made the same year, and see how demolished and abandoned parts of NYC were back then. I have no problem believing this low-budget movie didn't spend much time in making these locations seem any more post-apocalyptic than they already were. Just add a few motorcycles with skulls on them, an elbow pad with a spike on it, a few pointy sticks to spear and impale people with, and Hammer: The Exterminator (and nihilist extraordinaire) and you have a movie! Good time... totally woke me up. |
| 04.01.05 | Cinemark Pflugerville | had to see it again. Yes, some of the luster is gone in the near-empty cavern that was a tinseltown theater on a friday matinee, but the movie is still sweet in my book and I enjoyed myself again. Can't wait for the DVD |
| 03.31.05 | Paramount | I'm cut/pasting the movie review portion from a forum i hang out in where i just typed up my mini-review. First though I'll talk about the experience itself. After standing and waiting for Pretty Boy McConaughey for Sahara, I learned my lesson. I went in, got a drink, and found a spot right inside the door. While I was waiting this woman came up and we chatted for a bit. I saw Harry Knowles come in with his wheelchair and his dad helping him to the same seats they had for Sahara. The downside of being inside is that there's no news crews to stop the VIPs and make them talk, so the guys pretty much whipped on by when they got inside, but Rodriguez was there along with Jaime King (Goldie/Wendy), Nick Stal (Jr./Yellow Bastard), and Frank Miller himself! So i got a few bad pictures of them but then I took my seat... FIRST ROW AISLE, and Louis Black (Austin Figure supreme) came out and talked a bit about how cool the city was and everyone agreed. It was really cool to have the exec. director of the AFS sitting right behind me... I was too ready to see the movie to think of anything i could say to her that wouldn't turn out bad for both of us... so then Rodriguez came out and talked a little bit and then the movie started. The movie IS the books. It's a perfect reproduction of the books with some magical "tweening" effects thrown in to make it move. All the parts are cast pitch perfect (even Elijah, which i was most worried about...), the photography is... completely new. Yes, it does have more midtone than the books but it cuts out to harsher contrast to really drive it home every once in a while. Not to say that they don't match with the rest of the movie, which is gorgeous blach/white in varying degrees of starkness. It never gets full-on gray though which is good The use of color is perfect. It's used just the tiniest smidge more liberally than the books but it's never too heavy... I think the most color is during QT's scene. Seriously though, it's used with spot-on judgement and it ends up always enhancing without overbearing. The structure is for the most part not messed with except for a little bit at the beginning. Anyone worried about it doesn't intercut nearly at all except for the beginning. Yes, some shots look glaringly CG.... I think the lighting on the actors didn't quite match for maybe 3 shots and maybe another 3 twist the camera in a way that you're not used to so it screams CGI. And also, since i'm sharing my grouses... the sweet guitar/rumbling bass music used in the trailers where Alba's dancing is not used in the movie instead it's 'Absurd' by Fluke. when are they gonna stop using that song in movies?. oh well. So that was it. The crowd was great... laughing and yelling and clapping, even applauding between stories as if it were a multi-movement symphony. I think knowing we were mic'd made everyone just a bit more excited. Oh yeah, Rodriguez mic'd the theater (the gorgeous Paramount) and will use our reactions/applause as an alternate audio track on the DVD so you can watch it at home and still have it sound like you're in a packed house with movie-lovers. great idea! So afterward, they all came out, Rodriguez talked some more then opened it up to questions. I wont recount everything except i will mention the last question went to me: when will we get more books, frank? And then I had the pleasure of having Frank Miller look directly at me and say more were coming... he just needs to stop thinking of his characters in terms of the actors! So that's it. oh wait, i also got a book. It's this sizable making-of book written by Rodriguez and Miller. It has the script and character profiles and costumes and all sorts of stuff in it and, oh yeah, it's signed. I was so exhilarated after walking out that i decided against going to the afterparty (where i was supposed to meet up with that girl) because i wanted to come home and get these thoughts on something permanent before the absolutely drunken feeling that seeing a really fun movie brings out in me. THIS IS WHY I LOVE MOVIES. THIS IS WHY I WANT TO MAKE THEM. I am so seeing this tomorrow. |
