Frank Miller's Sin City: Recut, Extended, Unrated

From the Box: "Straight from the pages of Miller's hip series of Sin City graphic novels, Bruce Willis stars as a cop with a bum ticker and a vow to protect a sexy stripper; Mickey Rourke as an outcast misanthrope on a mission to avenge the death of his one trule love; and Clive Owen as Dwight, the clandestine love of Shellie, who spends his night defending Gail and her Old Town girls from a tough guy with a penchant for violence."

What You Get: Robert Rodriguez set out to direct a near-perfect adaptation of Frank Miller's crime-noir yarn, so much so he actually hires Frank Miller to co-direct. The story of this is actually 3.1 stories from Frank Miller's comic series: "The Hard Goodbye" (originally titled simply as "Sin City"), "The Yellow Bastard", "Big Fat Kill", and the short "The Customer is Always Right". The movie is shot all on green screen, and with some exceptions, strictly in black and white (to follow the palatte of the comic). The general stories follow revenge, justice, dames, and killing. It's a wild ride and fun (but not for the whole family).

This movie is very violent, brutally even, to the point of no return. Our heroes take a beaten, get back up, and take another one. Realistic? No, but it makes one hell of a watch. Not a chick flick by any means, this is a movie directed towards men (so back off feminazis!).

Now on a side note I'm a fan of Sin City, have the whole series (most graphic novels before recent reissue, and practically all the comics). While these 3 strories are great, I really, really wish they had "A Dame to Kill For" in and left "Big Fat Kill" for the sequal. That way we would've gotten more Marv, and shown that Dwight and Marv are friends (kinda). Maybe the fact that "Dame" takes place before, after, and during "Hard Goodbye" might've made the flow harder, but what ever.

Movie Rating: 4.5 (of 5) This isn't a movie for everyone. Not everyone can handle the black and white, not everyone can handle the brutality, and most other reviews I read bash this flick as machoism at it's worse. Screw them all. This movie is fun, and it's better in it's translation. The bad parts come from the hamming it up, the bad acting, and Brittany Murphy's very pressence in this movie. She sucks the life out of scenes.

DVD Features:

  • Original Theatrical
  • Recut, Extended, and Unrated Version separated into Four Stories (you can watch the film in it's TRUE order!)
  • 15 min film school with Robert Rodriguez
  • The Long Take: 14 uninterrupted minutes of Tarantino's Segment
  • "Sin City Live" (Bruce Willi's band in concert)
  • 10-min cooking school with Rodriguez
  • How it Went Down: Convincing Frank Miller to make the film
  • The Cars of Sin City
  • The Costumes of Sin City
  • Special Effects Make-Up
  • the Movie in High-Speed Green Screen (ALL Green)
  • Props of Sin City
  • Commentary with Rodriguez and Miller
  • Commentary with Rodriguez and Tarantino
  • Audio tract fraturing Austin audience reaction
  • Comes with min-graphic novel of "Hard Goodbye"

DVD Rating: 5(of 5)This gives you basically everything you could ask for. More features than most DVDs, the packaging is great, and you can watch the movie in any order you want. And honestly, what other features can you ask for?

Bonus Review: Frank Miller's Sin City (original DVD release)

DVD Features:

  • Behind the Scenes featurette
  • Spanish subtitles

DVD Rating: .5(of 5) This is the barebones version, almost as barebones as you can get, which I still kick myself for getting. This is the reason why I don't buy DVDs right when they come out anymore. Clearly they studio, Dimension, rushed this out to make some extra bank while Troublemaker worked on a release that was worthwhile. Don't bother with this version AT ALL. This is only good for the rent, not the purchase. Spend the extra coin for the Recut, Extended, Unrated version.