Sin City is a grimy, dangerous place to be and it is filled to capacity with rough types. The film chronicles a number of different characters with intertwining stories and on this release, you can actually see the stories separated out and recut as four separate vignettes. But more on that later.
Frank Hartigan (Bruce Willis) is one of the few good cops in Basin City, hot on the trail of a Senator's twisted son who has a taste for little girls. Right now, Roark Jr. (Nick Stahl) has 11-year-old Nancy Callahan in his clutches and Hartigan will stop at nothing to save the little girl. But in doing so, he has pissed off a number of high ranking people and he ends up saving the girl, but going down for the crimes Roark Jr. committed - but not before doing some serious damage to the little sleaze ball. Grateful for her life, little Nancy Callahan vows to write to him every week, under a pseudonym, and she keeps her promise.
Fast-forward 8 years and all of a sudden, Nancy's letters stop and Hartigan must get out of jail to find out if she is all right. The Nancy he finds is not the sweet little girl he remembers, but a sexy stripper in a local dive. When he realizes Roark Jr. (now known as That Yellow Bastard because of some chemical therapy gone wrong) tricked him into drawing Nancy (Jessica Alba) out, Hartigan and Nancy band together to stop Roark Jr. once and for all.
Then there's Marv (Mickey Rourke), a really ugly guy, but a tough one. He finds himself spending the night with the girl of his dreams, Goldie (Jaime King), only to awaken to find her corpse lying next to him. It seems he wasn't strong enough to protect her from her killer. He goes on a rampage through the town to find out who is to blame, but not before running into Goldie's gorgeous twin, Wendy (Jaime King), who blames Marv for her death. Together, they make the real killer, Kevin (Elijah Wood), a cannibalistic stoolie of Cardinal Roark (Rutger Hauer), who is Senator Roark's brother, pay for what he has done - that is, kill a number of prostitutes from Old Town, including Goldie. Unfortunately, revenge comes with a price and Lucille (Carla Gugino), both Marv and Hartigan's parole officer, gets caught up in the mix.
Then there's the ladies of Old Town, led by Gail (Rosario Dawson), who is clad in little more than some belts and fishnet. Together with the other lovely ladies of the night in Old Town, they rule the streets, not having to bend to pimps or the Mob. There's a tenuous truce between the cops and the prostitutes and each stays out of the others' affairs, that is, until Dwight (Clive Owen) steps in to protect his new girlfriend Shellie (Brittany Murphy) from her abusive cop ex-boyfriend Jackie Boy (Benicio Del Toro). Now, Jackie Boy is headless and his buddies are dead and Dwight must rely on his ex-girlfriend, Gail, to help him out of this pickle. Little do they know that there's a traitor in their midst.
The final story interwoven in this plot is that of "The Salesman" (Josh Hartnett), a hired hit man. While his appearances are brief, they are intense and extremely well done, with perfect splashes of color to punctuate important moments. Upon watching the special features, I discovered that this short scene was actually a test run to get Frank Miller on board and boy, did it work.
Speaking of special features, this release is chock-full of them. Not only do you get the Blu-ray exclusive Cine-Explore (picture-in-picture behind the scenes commentary), but you also get commentaries with Directors Robert Rodriguez, Frank Miller and Quentin Tarentino, plus an audio track recording of the Austin Audience Reaction. There's an interactive comic book called Kill 'Em Good where you can experience Marv's story, which is pretty cool, plus a bevy of featurettes such as how they convinced Frank Miller to get involved, one on Quentin's guest directorial spot, one on the cars of Sin City, and also the props, the special effects make-up and finally the costumes. Each featurette clocks in at around 10-12 minutes and they are all excellent and well worth watching. I am not a huge fan of featurettes on the making-of usually, but these were great. Then, you get another grouping of featurettes from Robert Rodriguez. These range from a quickie film school by Rodriguez, to a piece on the music, all the way down to a recipe for his grandmother's breakfast tacos, which was a blast. One of my favorites was the entire movie crammed into a 10 minute timeframe with only the actors and the green screen. It really gives the viewer an appreciation for what they brought to the table with CG and such to create this masterful and visually incredible film.
Of special note is the ability to watch the films in order of story, that is, they are broken down into the 4 separate vignettes. While I watched them this way, I prefer the original story, to be honest. It actually makes more sense with all of them meshed together. The uncut version boasts an additional 23 minutes of footage, although, for the life of me, the only thing I really could tell that was different were the credits rolling at the end of each of the vignettes. However, that being said, I still can't recommend the Blu-ray version of Sin City more. Even without any additional footage, the visuals are amazing in high-def and the surround sound is spectacular as bullets whiz by your ears and you almost feel every thud of fist against flesh. Am I gushing like a fan girl? You betcha. I already have this movie on DVD and was more than happy to welcome the Blu-ray version into my collection. It's how this movie should be viewed. Go out and buy it as soon as possible and you won't be disappointed.
