Sin City is a big deal for comic book types.

Frank Miller's body of work is quite remarkable. It contains most of my favorite classic storylines. The Dark Knight Returns is his undisputed masterpiece, and most people consider it to be his most impressive work. His Daredevil storyline "Born Again" (#227-233) is the best Daredevil story to date. Miller wrote the Elektra saga (#168-181) and that ranks as the second best Daredevil storyline. All of these stories are very close to the comic book lover portion of my heart. Year One Batman is also a wonderful piece of work to go along with the others.

Of course, his name is popping up everywhere these days because of the new Sin City film by he, Robert Rodriguez, and Quentain Tarantino. I've read the three storylines involved a number of times and I am incredibly excited about the release of the movie.

Personally, I would have gone with A Dame to Kill for as opposed to
The Big Fat Kill. The Big Fat Kill is the most bizarre and surreal of all the stories and maybe this is why the trio decided to film this storyline. I don't disagree that it would transfer to celluloid interestingly, but A Dame to Kill For is probably the most well-written of all the Sin City stories. The Big Fat Kill isn't even very accessible because protaganists are difficult to decipher from antagonists even for Sin City standards. The other two storylines, That Yellow Bastard and Sin City, represent the Sin City thing perfectly. That Yellow Bastard is probably the more conventional of the two books so it will be well-received by movie-goers. Of course, Sin City and Marv are the personification of what is Sin City. Big fans of the book will revel in this storyline because it is THE classic and original Sin City story.

The early reviews of the film have universally ranged from basically satisfied to completely blown away. That is a good sign. (It's not like Godfather II received any bad early reviews you know. Ahem. This won't be Godfather II.)

The film needs to be violent so I don't know how well it will do at the box office. Hell, Kill Bill did fine, but I also somehow doubt this film will be as good as the Kill Bill movies. The b&w is stunning in the trailers. The splashes of gold and blood red are brilliant and surprisingly effective. (They were for the minute and a half trailers at least.) The casting really seems perfect. How good is the fit of Rourke as Marv? The film seems as if it was conceived just for the diehard fans of the comics. I am very happy that a studio finally did that for a major comic book film.

Still, The April release date and Robert Rodriguez's direction have me skeptical. April is not a bad time to release a movie. In fact, it is quite possibly the most interesting month to release a film. Last year, Man on Fire and Kill Bill 2 were released in April. These were two very interesting films if not great ones. I would be very happy if Sin City is interesting but not particularly great. Even if it were just interesting it would be the best comic book film ever. This is still just thoery. Most April movies suck. I liked 13 Going on 30, but that came out last April too.

Robert Rodriguez's movies have basically been bad. They are all fun to watch once, but there is never a real desire to watch any of them a second time. Desperado is a film that I don't really mind watching multiple times.

You just have to like Rodriguez though. His reputation is better than his actual films. It's an event when he makes something despite the usual low-grade of the actual movies. I can see why. While watching Rodriguez films, the viewer can really feel the sheer enthusiasm the director has for making movies. I'm really pulling for Robert on this project.

I hate to say it because I love aintitcoolnews and Harry, Quint and those guys, but it can be hard to believe thier reviews sometimes. Not that aintitcool sucks. Quite the opposite. Aintitcool is the most literate film website on the internet without question.

I'm just dubious of Harry's positive review because he's friends with Robert Rodriguez. Of course Harry occasionally gives positive reviews to films that suck. He does that to stay on good terms with some of his cool Hollywood buddies. Harry does not suck for this, but he does do it. Anybody remember the Blade II review? Harry practically made that "film" sound like it was the second coming of 8 1/2. Doesn't Harry know Guillermo Del Toro personally? That's interesting.

A positive review for Alexander? Oh come now. You're not taking a chance with somebody's relationship when you dis Blade 3 or Punisher, but it would do Harry some good to give a positive review to anything Mr. Oliver Stone might direct.

Harry isn't as bad as some say he is because he had the gaul to dis Mystic River. I love the film, but dissing it took some guts. I like him more for it. I don't know if he is friends with Clint Eastwood, though.

Harry is also just too nice a guy to dis his friend's movie. The man is not above giving films sympathy reviews for a project he feels sorry for. Of course Alexander, and does anyone remember the Matrix sequels? I do. They sucked. He defended them and there was not much reason too.

Also, Harry said this is the best thing that all involved have ever created. That means that this is the best thing that Quentain Tarantino has ever associated his name with. I'd be very surprised if that were true.

Basically, a good review by Harry can be misleading, but I am encouraged by the high percentage of positive reviews. Sin City is the fanboys dream project. The books are as good as advertised. The trailers look great, and the film is a transfer of the books to the screen so it has to be great, right? I get excited when I hear that hard-boiled dialogue straight from the comics. We'll see about this film, won't we. I wish I wasn't so skeptical.