Last night, I had the privilege of going to an advance screening of Frank Miller’s Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, which comes out today.
This is the sequel to Frank Miller’s Sin City. It’s mainly based on Frank Miller’s second Sin City book. Just like the first movie, A Dame to Kill For is broken up into different stories. The first starts with Marv, played by Mickey Rourke, in “Just Another Saturday Night”, when he tries to remember what events lead to him waking up beside a car crash. This story is actually from the sixth book in the Sin City book series. It is set after “That Yellow Bastard” but before “The Hard Goodbye” (obviously)
The second story is “The Long Bad Night”, features Johnny, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, a young gambler who wins against the wrong bad guy, Senator Roark, played by Powers Boothe. This story was created by Frank Miller for the film. This story also features Lady Gaga and Christopher Lloyd in minor roles.
The third story, the namesake of the film, is “A Dame to Kill For”, and follows our good friend Dwight McCarthy, played by Josh Brolin. This part of the film is actually set before the first movie’s “The Big Fat Kill”. In it, Dwight meets up with his former lover Ava, played by Eva Green, who wants Dwight to help her escape from her abusive husband and his superhuman body guard. Dwight enlists the help of Gail, played by Rosario Dawson and Miho, played by Jamie Chung, who Dwight saved when she was 15. Christopher Meloni and Jeremy Piven are also seen in this story as Mort and Bob, two detectives. Bob is John Hartigan’s (played by Bruce Willis) former partner.
The final story, “Nancy’s Last Dance”, was also written by Miller just for the film. In it, Nancy, played by Jessica Alba, is still torn up about John Hartigan’s suicide (as seen in “That Yellow Bastard (Part II)” in the first movie) and has started to have hallucinations of him. She manipulates Marv into helping her seek revenge against Senator Roark.
Now for my thoughts.
I really wanted to like this film as much as the first one and unfortunately, I didn’t. Sure there was lots of “Oh”s and “Ah”s when someone was killed in an elaborate way (Miho has a really great killing scene, which I think was my favorite part), but it didn’t have the same punch as the first. I like leaving a theater really pumped and after the credits, I was just annoyed at the people who wouldn’t let me by because they had their bags in front of them. The movie had already left my thoughts before I even left the theater.
I also thought like the storyline “The Long Bad Night” fell really flat. I felt like it didn’t really fit in with the rest of the movie. It seemed unnecessary. When it ended I actually said “That’s it?” under my breathe. Sure, Lady Gaga was in it and I smiled when Christopher Lloyd corrected Johnny that he was Doctor Kroenig[, not Mister, but it was still just filler.
Of course, if you liked the first movie, you’re going to see Sin City: A Dame to Kill For. The movie is as visually stunning as the first, even if the story lines aren’t that great. If you haven’t seen the first, maybe go see this one first, then see the original.
~Laura
