Into the Blu

Sin City (Canadian Import)

Posted on 30. Oct, 2008 by Brian White in 1.78:1, 1080p, AVC MPEG-4, Action, DTS-HD Lossless Master Audio 5.1 (English), DTS-HD Lossless Master Audio 5.1 (French), Dolby Digital 5.1 (English), Dolby Digital 5.1 (French), Import, Reviews

Back in 2005, Sin City was one of those DVD movies I bought as a blind purchase, and coincidentally, the first movie I ever watched on my brand new 50” Sony LCD rear projection HDTV at the time. I remember just being completely mesmerized by the movie’s unique, and at the time, revolutionary coloring process. The majority of the film is rendered in black and white but contains certain color palettes to emphasize specific objects and scenes. I was really taken aback by this as I am usually just into the cookie-cutter kind of traditional color looking films and not often moved by artistic attempts at being different. Rocky Balboa also used this coloring process in the final fight scene, which really made it stand out compared to all the other Rocky franchise fight scenes. After doing some research this is also among one of the first films to be shot primarily on a digital back lot. The film was shot using Sony High-Definition cameras. The actors worked in front of a green screen and all the backgrounds and effects were added later during post-production.

Sin City is a film written, produced, and directed by Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez. The film is based on Frank Miller’s series of graphic novels under the same name. The film primarily focuses on three inter-twining bodies of work within the series: “The Hard Goodbye,” The Big Fat Kill,” and “That Yellow Bastard.” The film contains one of the biggest smorgasbords of movie stars I have ever seen in a Hollywood production. The long list includes the likes of Bruce Willis, Jessica Alba, Clive Owen, Michael Clarke Duncan, Benicio del Toro, Rosario Dawson, Powers Boothe, Michael Madsen, Josh Hartnett, Jaime King, Brittany Murphy, Mickey Rourke, Nick Stahl, Elijah Wood, Rutger Hauer, Devon Aoki and many other familiar faces I noticed while watching. Where else, besides Oceans Eleven or Rat Race, can you find a film production with such an enormous all-star cast such as the aforementioned list of actors/actresses? That is a rhetorical question of course. Did I mention it has Jessica Alba, playing the role of a stripper, in it too?

Sin City takes places within and outside the fictional city of Basin City. You can kind of put two and two together to figure out where the film’s title comes from. After a short introduction, entitled “The Customer is Always Right,” the audience is plunged right into the middle of the emerging storyline of “That Yellow Bastard.” Police officer John Hartigan (Bruce Willis) is attempting to save 11-year-old Nancy Callahan from serial child murderer Roark Jr. (Nick Stahl). Roark Jr. is the son of the powerful, yet corrupt, Senator Roark (Powers Boothe). Hartigan becomes the hero of the day as he single-handedly saves Nancy and critically injures Roark Jr. It is when officer Hartigan’s partner betrays him and leaves him for dead, that Nancy is left behind to lay in the lap of her hero as the lights go dark for the aging officer. In his heart, Hartigan has no regrets for the result of his actions in rescuing Nancy.

The lights come back up as the audience is now intimately involved in “The Hard Goodbye” storyline. The story centers around a massive thug named Marv (Mickey Rourke) and his undying compassion for his slain lover, Goldie (Jaime King). Marv sets out to find Goldie’s killer no matter what the cost is. I will reiterate that last sentence once again. There are no earthly chains and bounds that will prevent Marv from finding Goldie’s killer. Viewers are in for quite a pilgrimage of mayhem as Marv destroys everyone and everything in his way to track down the killer. Stories don’t always have a happy ending as we begin to find out in Basin City.

“The Big Fat Kill” revolves around a barmaid, Shellie (Brittany Murphy), who is being harassed by her abusive and punishing ex-boyfriend Jackie Boy (Benicio del Toro). This is the point where the movie really shines. I am not talking about just the visuals either. I am talking about the acting of Benicio del Toro. Much like I would refer to Heath Ledger’s Oscar deserving performance as the Joker in The Dark Knight, Benecio could not have done a better job as Jackie Boy here. His mannerisms, facial expressions and dialogue deliverance were just so natural and authentic. He literally cracked me up at times. Anyway, Dwight (Clive Owen) comes to Shellie’s rescue and follows Jackie and his boys out to Old Town where the streets are controlled the by the prostitutes. While Dwight cleans up the mess that is made, mercenary Manute (Michael Clarke Duncan) kidnaps head prostitute Gail (Rosario Dawson), and his entourage invade Old Town. That is until Dwight, and martial arts expert Miho (Devon Aoki), formulate a plan to attempt to over throw the mercenaries and put the prostitutes back in control of Old Town.

When it is all said and done we circle 360 degrees back to our original story arc “That Yellow Bastard.” We find officer Hartigan, who was left for dead at the beginning of the movie, being informed by Senator Roark that he will be framed for all his son’s crimes and will obviously serve the jail time. Little Nancy tenderly visits Hartigan in the hospital and promises to write him every week. She also tells Hartigan that she loves him. It seems kind of creepy coming from an 11-year-old girl to a 50+ year old man. After eight years pass and Hartigan all the sudden stops receiving weekly letters from Nancy, the fuel that has kept him going all these years in solitary confinement, he begins to grow worried. His worst fears are confirmed when he receives an envelope addressed from Nancy containing a severed finger. His only chance to find and help save Nancy is to confess to all his charges and hope they grant him parole, which of course they do. It is a movie after all. Once on the outside, Hartigan tracks down Nancy (Jessica Alba) who is nineteen-years-old now and working as an erotic dancer at Kadie’s Bar. Before it is too late, Hartigan realizes that by finding Nancy he has now led horribly disfigured and discolored, Roark Jr., to Nancy’s exact location. Don’t you find it kind of strange that up until now no one knew who or where Nancy really was, even though she was a prominent stripper there in Basin City using her real name? Maybe it is just I? So now it is up to Hartigan to save Nancy from the peril grips of that Yellow Bastard. God speed Hartigan!

As you can see from the previous four paragraphs it is quite a complicated tale of short stories intertwined into one cohesive movie, if you dare call it that. What makes it even quirkier is that the action at the end of the movie really takes place before “The Hard Goodbye” story even unfolds. I know all this sounds really confusing and I am living proof it can take one up to several viewings to really understand everything. With that being said I just can’t get enough of this movie’s vivid visuals and use of colors to accent objects. It is quite simply brilliant, artistic and beautiful all at the same time. And no I am not just talking about Jessica Alba the stripper. I was very excited when Buena Vista announced that this movie was going to be released on the Blu-ray format October 21, 2008, not so much for the movie itself, but to see the visual masterpiece I knew it was in glorious 1080P. With that being said let me be the first to admit how extremely disappointed I was when Buena Vista later said that the US release is indefinitely postponed. Thank God for the Canadians who managed to secure the title’s original release date. So ladies and gentlemen of America…I am afraid the only way to own Sin City right now in the US is to have it imported to you. If you are a fan of the movie and a High-Definition freak, like me, then I believe it to be worth every penny you pay for it.

Video

Sin City (Canadian release) is brought to the Blu-ray format on a BD-25 layer disc utilizing a 1080P AVC video encode and a 1.78:1 aspect ratio. It beautifully fills the whole viewing area of your traditional 16×9 displays. We already discussed in brief the movie’s unique filming process. Every detail and texture is stunningly captured as sharp, focused, and three-dimensional throughout. If you want an example to show off 3-D pop, you have it here. The blacks are completely solid with no visible signs of grain. The soft background shots, at times, are due to the employment of filming and digitally manipulating sets against the green screen. I did notice a few shots of compression, some artifact blocking and occasional noise, but nothing that I found the least bit distracting at all. The videophiles out there will argue that the 14-15 Mbs average low bitrates are unacceptable. If that is the case, then I love how the term unacceptable looks. I am very pleased with the transfer of this film and it is everything I was hoping it would be.

Audio

Although, the back of the Blu-ray cover art says the movie contains DTS 5.1 audio, don’t be fooled and pass up on this release. This is simply not the case. The audio track on the Blu-ray disc is in fact DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. For not seeing the movie’s theatrical release, I cannot honestly remember how impressive the audio should sound. The DTS-HD MA audio track does not disappoint. However, it is a bit quieter than most movies but I believe that to be the atmosphere the film’s producers are trying to create. I had to turn the receiver’s volume up just a tad more than I do for most blockbuster movies. With the exception of Jessica Alba, the dialogue was loud, clear, and distinct throughout. This is very important as the narrative dialogue plays a crucial role in this movie. The surround sounds for ambient effects like the lightning, gunshots and rain were masterfully mixed. More importantly, the action scenes managed to become very aggressive sounding at times. While I may have little things I nitpick here and there about, I was very much impressed by the audio track upon my second viewing. I was also much more in-tune and paying a lot more attention to the sound dynamics my second time around. I think the first time around I was just too visually stimulated to even care about the sound.

Special Features

Sin City, the Canadian release, lands on Blu-ray with absolutely ZERO special features. While it is not a deal breaker to me, because I don’t even usually watch any of the special features unless I am reviewing them, this is an utter disappoint for die-hard fans of the movie. I buy movies for the film itself, not for the bonus features. Since this is only on a BD-25 layer disc I think we should be glad nothing else was added that took up space and ultimately could have impacted the quality of our feature presentation. When the Blu-ray disc initially loads in a player a message displays that the film will begin. No menu is available on the Blu-ray disc. The pop-up menu, when accessed, provides only controls for set-up options such as audio and subtitles, and a scene selection panel.

Final Thoughts

I hope I did not lose any readers with my last statement of how this Blu-ray release contains no special features. Who knows how long we will have to wait in the US for an eventual Blu-ray release of this movie? If special features are really that important to you then in the meantime I would suggest you wait and enjoy your Standard-Definition DVD copy on your grandmother’s tube television. That way the picture will look as sharp as possible for you. If you are an undying fan of the movie and cannot wait to experience the High-Definition presentation of Sin City then by all means stop reading now, do a search engine lookup for a site to buy from and enjoy this movie the way it is screaming out to be seen. I have no regrets, regarding my decision, to pay a bit extra to import this bare bones Blu-ray edition of Sin City to my US address. In my opinion, it was worth every foreign to US converted cent. I am eagerly anticipating the news of production to start on the Sin City 2 project. Just as recently as this past September, rumblings have been heard of plans getting under way and of a completed script. There are even rumors of Johnny Depp being involved in the project. Here is hoping to a successful cast reunion and the desirable return of Jessica Alba reprising her role as Nancy Callahan. Until that time happens enjoy this Blu-ray release of Sin City and take care to stay out of trouble in Basin City.

Tags: alba, aoki, canadian, city, dawson, hrtnett, Import, madsen, miller, murphy, owen, rodreguez, rourke, sin, willis, wood