An Evening of Sin

No, it's not what you think. I just got back from seeing Sin City and WOW!
First thing to say is that this is a beautiful looking film. It's based on a comic book and it looks like a comic in a way no film has managed before. But we're not dealing with a bright spandex filled comic, this comic book film is all about darkness. It's nearly all in black and white but every now and again there's a splash of colour, a red tail light, blue eyes, yellow bastard (the character's name as well as a description), a character to fall in love with. It's all just so visually stunning and, well, beautiful, which is in stark contrast to the film itself.
Sin City is a place of deprevation, depression and desperation. The Old Town is run by the hookers, the rest of the city by the mob and the overly corrupt police. As the film goes on we see snapshots of lives as we follow three main storylines through the streets of the city. The three main storylines all get their heroes, but these aren't heroes like you'll find in a superman comic, this film is all about shades of grey, and the heroes are just the people that kill and torture for honourable reasons. They're flawed, short sighted and in at least one case probably psychotic, but in the violent world of sin city violence needs to be met with violence. And it is violent. Hyper-realistic, white, yellow and red blood splatted violence that at times made me cringe, laugh and cheer, sometimes all at once. The film is brilliantly cast. The lines, taken straight from the comic, could easily have sounded cheesey or just plain crap, but this cast pulls them off and they just feel right.
Ultimately, this film isn't for everyone. I saw this with Hannah and Sam, who both hated it. Maybe it's a boys film, there's certainly a large amount of guns and flesh on display, but I think whether you like this film or not will come down to the films, books and comics you have or haven't loved before.