Sin City (UMD-Movie, 2005)

Adapted from Frank Miller's graphic novels, SIN CITY is Robert Rodriguez's striking film noir infused with fantasy, taking place in a world where it is eternally nighttime and everything is drenched in rain and violence. Using a unique combination of silvery black and white digital photography with occasional flashes of bright color for dazzling punctuation, Rodriguez employs green screen techniques and paints a backdrop around each scene, using Miller's co-direction as his cue to match the original setting as closely as possible. Three stories weave together, occasionally overlapping. With lines delivered flatly in the hard-boiled style of Raymond Chandler, these tales are about crime, love, loss, and being preternaturally tough. In the most caustically dramatic segment, Mickey Rourke plays the fearlessly lovestruck Marv, a trenchcoat-clad beast who falls in love with prostitute Goldie (Jaime King) only to find her murdered by a demonic cannibal (Elijah Wood). In another segment, Bruce Willis plays Hartigan, a rogue cop with a "bum ticker" whose goal in life is to save Nancy (Jessica Alba), an innocent stripper, from a murderous rapist (Nick Stahl). The third segment stars Clive Owen as a detective caught between murdered cop Jackie Boy (Benicio Del Toro) and a slew of lethally dangerous vixens lead by Gail (Rosario Dawson). With blood spurting white, yellow, and yes even red; a roster of hot actors that goes on and on; and sound editing that makes you feel like you're the one being punched in the face, SIN CITY is a gift for fans of Miller's art, loaded with style and grit.