FRIDAY: Sin City

The speakers for my TV have an iPod dock on them. So something I do for fun is watch TV with no sound, while playing something completely inappropriate from my iPod. An example would be playing heavy metal while watching Play School or something from the Pirates of the Carribean soundtrack during Dr. Phil. Every once in a while, the action on the screen synchronises with the music and it's really funny.

Speaking of iPods, I had to restore mine because it started acting really funny. Because Apple is lame, I had to upgrade to iOS4, which I'm having trouble jailbreaking. If anyone's jailbroken an iOS4 device, then please tell me. Otherwise I'll have to downgrade :(

I've managed to watch three more movies since the last post- Sin City, Pan's Labyrinth and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. I realised I never talk about movies that people might be planning to see or are still in cinemas, which means my posts don't really help anyone. But noone's complained yet so here we go.

Sin CityThis is a movie based on a comic series by Frank Miller, who also co-directed. According to the director, this was meant to be a translation of the comic, not an adaptation. That explains the brilliant style of the film. Everything looks good. The police cars bouncing down the road looks good. The CGI backdrop looks good. Jessica Alba as a cowgirl stripper looks really good.


I think that sums up what I liked most about the film. The director (Robert Rodriguez, famous among other things for directing Spy Kids) managed to pull off a very unique visual style that Zack Snyder didn't really do right with 300. There's a strong cast that do a good job with their characters (like Jessica Alba).

Though I haven't read the Sin City comics, I have read some of Miller's other stuff. By other stuff I mean his Batman comics. On one hand, he wrote Batman: Year One, which is considered one of the best Batman comics written. On the other hand, he wrote All Star: Batman and Robin which is a notoriously bad comic (though the artwork is really good).


Basically the problem with that comic is that Miller tries to make Batman sound like a badass, confident, slightly sadistic vigilante. Not a bad idea but unfortunately, he comes out sounding like a bit of a wanker (and not in a likeable way).

Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that some parts of the script in Sin City feel like they teeter dangerously close to that level of lameness. Overall though, I liked this movie a lot. If I had to give it a rating out of 5, I'd give it 4/5.


I felt very self-conscious while writing that and I don't think I have the time to write about another two movies so that's it. For anyone who's interested, Pan's Labyrinth and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang are also good movies and right now, I'd put them very roughly in the same league.