Sin City (2005)

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Nancy Callahan	Jessica Alba	½
Miho	Devon Aoki
Becky	Alexis Bledel	½
Senator Roark	Powers Boothe
Gail	Rosario Dawson
Jackie Boy	Benicio Del Toro
Manute	Michael Clarke Duncan
Lucille	Carla Gugino
The Man	Josh Hartnett
Cardinal Roark	Rutger Hauer
Godlie/Wendy	Jaime King
Bob	Michael Madsen	½
Shellie	Brittany Murphy	½
Dwight	Clive Owen	½
Marv	Mickey Rourke
Roark Jr./Yellow Bastard	Nick Stahl	½
Hartigan	Bruce Willis
Kevin	Elijah Wood

Review

Visually, Robert Rodriguez' Sin City is one of the most compelling, stylish and beautiful films ever. The images are impressively clean and tidy, the colour-palette amazingly crisp and the dynamic camera-movement makes it a roller-coaster ride into Frank Miller's cartoon world. The direction by Rodriguez (Miller is co-credited, but not for the right reasons, according to the SAG) is familiar stuff by now - continuing in the vein he and Quentin Tarantino started in the 90s. That works fine with Sin City, because with these cartoonish and caricatured characters, Rodriguez' 'style over substance'-direction is spot-on. Wonderfully exaggerated, these characters are both joyously engaging and painfully repetitive. Some work better (Rourke, Wood) than others (Owen, Madsen), because as all the male protagonists are basically the same, and with their thoughts being presented through their own voice-over, it's hard for a bleak Clive Owen to follow a rampant Mickey Rourke. Sin City is definitely not without dramatic effect, but the film struggles with keeping its often banal stories interesting throughout. Parts work brilliantly, but Miller and Rodriguez can't prevent the film from becoming episodic. That doesn't mean there isn't a lot of fun in store. Look for Elijah Wood and Josh Hartnett (who both teamed up for Rodriguez' The Faculty back in 1998) in charismatic bit parts.