Sin City (Blu-ray)

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"Sin City" is particularly effective in its use of black-and-white photography to recreate the appearance of Miller's graphic novels. And it serves the purpose not only of reminding one of the books but of deepening the menace of the stories' noir atmosphere (so dark that here literally everything happens at night). Then, to set it off, the B&W is punctuated occasionally with snippets of color: a red dress here, splashes of blood there, or, most effectively, the only character entirely tinted, the "Yellow Bastard." Intersperse the B&W with dabs of color, add a few actual animations, present each frame as though it were set in a comic book, and you've got the look and feel of Miller's graphic novels down pat.

OK, now I don't mean to leave readers with the idea that I think the film is perfect or that it will please every discerning viewer, even the most ardent admirers of the comic-book material it's based on. If the film suffers at all, it is from four things: (1) It's too long. At over two hours I found it dragging by the end and all of its stylistic devices beginning to lose their impact from overuse. (2) Its comic-book mentality is obviously shallow, which doesn't allow for any serious development of its characters. So we get exactly what the graphic novels intended--two-dimensional heroes and villains as noted above. (3) Its voice-over narration, also in keeping with its comic-book origins, can be a further burden when combined with the movie's excessive length. And (4) it's got so much violent action throughout the stories that the violence creates a cumulative numbing effect, eventually desensitizing us to the very shocks that are supposed to be so enthralling.

None of which are serious enough faults to keep "Sin City" from being mostly entertaining. I may not have fallen as completely under the movie's spell as many other viewers, but "mostly entertaining" is good enough for me to look forward to another visit to this "City" whenever possible.

And to that, Jim would add that the acting is darned good, too, and so tonally consistent with the comic book style that one probably has to credit the directors here too.

Video:
This film was shot on a soundstage using green screens and a digital camera, with digitalized backgrounds added during post-production. The result, especially in 1080p, is an amazing visual comic book experience that really highlights the style, and the images pop out with such 3-D effect that it's easily going to be one of the Blu-rays people pop into their players to show skeptics that Hi Def is really capable of. Two versions are provided here: the original theatrical, and the recut/extended/unrated version which adds 23 minutes. Well, more like half that, since that count includes new beginning and end sequences. But there's a scene added to each of the main stories that fans should appreciate. Both versions are presented in 1.85:1 widescreen, and the AVC/MPEG-4 transfer is a clean and crisp one that has no visible defects. Plain and simple, it's a striking picture, and the visual style--a washed-out black-and-white with spot color--was made for Blu-ray. Miller and Rodriguez really capture the look of the comic books, and "Sin City" has never looked better.

Audio:
The audio is a perky English DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio (48 kHz/24-bit) that's as stellar as the video. Whether it's a line of soft-spoken dialogue or one of the many effects, "Sin City" really rocks the speakers and distributes the sound nicely over all six channels. There's an additional audio option in Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1, but I can't imagine watching without hearing the distinctive voices that the actors provide and reading subtitles instead (which, in addition to Spanish, are also available in English SDH).

Extras:
You would have thought that the Blu-ray would have repeated all the features from the previous two-disc DVD release, but that's not the case.

Disc one does contain the regular theatrical-release version of the film with the same three audio commentaries as the previous release, however. The first (2.0) is with Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller, who tell us about some of the things that went on behind the scenes while directing the film. They talk a lot at first about how Rodríguez convinced Miller to do the film at all. Then they explain the occasional use of color and the dark humor in the picture. It's nice having the story's creator here and hearing how they were trying to be as faithful as possible to the books. The second commentary (2.0) is with Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino, with a little help later on from Bruce Willis. Here, the men talk mainly about the technical aspects of the filmmaking. Rodríguez explains that he shot the opening scene before he even had the rights to the story, making it in order to persuade Miller of his good intentions. Later, Tarantino tells us that he was inspired by Italian horror-thriller director Dario Argento to create his color scheme for his little segment. The third commentary (5.1) is composed of audience reaction at the movie's Austin première. Basically, you sit in the audience with them and hear what they say and listen to their laughter and applause and screams. I guess it's for people who don't like to watch movies by themselves.

A couple of short features turn up missing, and instead of the "Sin-Chroni-City Interactive" from the DVD there's Cine-Explore, a Profile 1.1 picture-in-picture feature that combines video commentary plus PIP shots of the original graphic novel and footage of the green screen work. In truth, though, this is a sophisticated and fun way to watch the film that beats the pants off of Sin-Chroni-City.

Disc two is where things really start to vary. It contains the new, recut, extended, and unrated version of "Sin City," with the additional 23 minutes tagged on. What you get are full-length, expanded cuts of each individual episode presented as separate short films, each complete in its own right. In a brief introduction, Rodriguez explains that you can watch the stories all at once or separately at your own leisure rather than their being intertwined as one long story as they are in the theatrical release. Incidentally, the correct chronology, he tells us, is actually "That Yellow Bastard," "The Customer Is Always Right," "The Hard Goodbye," and then "The Big Fat Kill." Don't expect a lot of changes in the stories, though; the additional bits and pieces don't amount to as much as you might expect, and nowhere do the filmmakers tell you exactly what was added. Each of the four episodes now sports its own title screen and closing credits, which take up some additional time. I liked the new "Mom" scene in "The Hard Goodbye," and "That Yellow Bastard" appeared to have the most newly added material, including an expanded character, but none of it seems to amount to very much.

As with the previous release, there's Robert Rodriguez's "15 Minute Film School," really twelve minutes, wherein we find out how the director created the various film effects, cast the characters, etc. Here too is Rodriguez' "All Green Version" of the movie, where the whole film is speeded up to less than 10 minutes, with nothing but green screens behind the actors. It's weird but captivating and not a little educational, too. Here as well is "The Long Take," a 17-minute section that shows us the entire shooting of the scene Tarantino did with Owen and Del Toro in the car together, with all the takes. Fourth is "Sin City: Live in Concert," nine minutes with Bruce Willis and his band the Accelerators playing the song "Devil Woman" at Antone's night club. Then, as though we hadn't gotten enough of Robert Rodriguez, we get a six-minute segment called "Ten-Minute Cooking School" wherein the director shows us how to make "Sin City" breakfast tacos. By the time you're finished with all this stuff, you may not want to see Robert Rodriguez ever again.

Missing features from disc one turn up here. The first of these is "How It Went Down: Convincing Frank Miller to Make the Film," five minutes with Miller and Rodríguez again talking about how they got together on the project. Next is a seven-minute bit, " Special Guest Director, Quentin Tarantino," in which Tarantino talks about his part in filming a segment of "The Big Fat Kill." After that is "A Hard Top With A Decent Engine: The Cars of Sin City," seven minutes with Miller, Rodriguez, and Cecil D. Evans, the transportation consultant responsible for getting together the vintage 1950s' cars used in the film. "Booze, Broads & Guns: The Props of Sin City" is next, ten minutes with prop master Steve Joyner, plus Rodríguez and Miller again and others, talking about the knives, guns, clubs, and such in the movie. Following that is the nine-minute featurette " Making the Monsters: Special Effects & Make-Up," with special makeup effects supervisor Greg Nicotero and others on how all of them decided on the look of the characters. Finally, there's "Trench Coats and Fishnets: The Costumes of Sin City," nine minutes with Nina Proctor, the costume supervisor and others discussing the characters' garb. Then there's a teaser and theatrical trailer.

The big Blu-ray exclusive is "Kill 'em Good," an interactive comic book feature that gives viewers the chance to interact with the comic book. But given the sophistication of video games these days, it's the kind of feature that wears out its welcome fairly soon. Don't look for the paperback copy of The Hard Goodbye that came with the two-disc DVD, because it's another of the features that's MIA.

Bottom line:
As John observed, "for all its excesses--and "Sin City" wouldn't be "Sin City" without them, the film is enormously fascinating, mostly entertaining, and always a delight to the eyes and ears (if not always to the stomach)." And it's even more mesmerizing in High Definition.

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