REVIEW -- Sin City: A Dame To Kill For (2014)

Sin City: A Dame To Kill For is a 2014 American neo-noir crime thriller film and follow-up to the 2005 film Sin City. Directed by Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller, the script is written by Miller, and is primarily based on the second book in the Sin City series by Miller.

One of the smaller plots of the film is based on the short story "Just Another Saturday Night", which is collected in Booze, Broads, & Bullets, the sixth book in the comic series. Two original stories ("The Long Bad Night" and "Nancy's Last Dance") were created exclusively for the film written by Miller. The film was released on August 22, 2014 in theaters and has released on DVD and Blu-Ray on November 18, 2014.

Let's be serious here... It has been long overdue that I owe you guys a review on this film.

Cast: 

Mickey Rourke as Marv
Jessica Alba as Nancy Callahan
Josh Brolin as Dwight McCarthy
Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Johnny
Rosario Dawson as Gail
Bruce Willis as John Hartigan
Eva Green as Ava Lord
Powers Boothe as Senator Roark
Dennis Haysbert as Manute
Ray Liotta as Joey
Christopher Meloni as Mort
Jeremy Piven as Bob
Christopher Lloyd as Kroenig
Jaime King as Goldie and Wendy
Juno Temple as Sally
Stacy Keach as Wallenquist
Marton Csokas as Damien Lord
Jude Ciccolella as Liebowitz
Jamie Chung as Miho
Julia Garner as Marcy
Lady Gaga as Bertha
Alexa PenaVega as Gilda

Plot: (FULL Spoilers)

"Just Another Saturday Night"

Marv (Mickey Rourke) regains consciousness on a highway overlooking the Projects, surrounded by several dead young men and a crashed police car and with no memory of how he got there. He retraces his steps, recalling since it's Saturday, he watched Nancy Callahan (Jessica Alba) dance at Kadie's Saloon. Stepping outside, he encounters four rich frat boys burning a homeless man alive. When Marv intervenes, the leader of the frat boys shoots him in the arm, calling him "Bernini Boy", which Marv mishears as "Bernie". They flee, and Marv follows, stealing a Police car on the way, which he crashes into their car, leading to his blackout and memory loss. He follows the two surviving frat boys into The Projects, the neighborhood where he grew up, and with the assistance of the deadly residents lurking in the shadows, he dispatches the frat boys. He questions the leader about being called "Bernini boy" and learns that it is the brand of coat he is wearing. After slitting the boy's throat, he considers his coat, and realizes he can't remember how he acquired it.

"The Long Bad Night (Part I)"

Johnny (Joseph Gordon Levitt), a cocky young gambler, arrives in Sin City and heads to Kadie's place, where he immediately hits the jackpot on multiple slot machines. Taking a young waitress, Marcie (Julia Garner) with him as a good luck charm, he buys into the backroom poker game led by the all-powerful Senator Roark (Powers Boothe). Johnny repeatedly wins in the high-stakes game, and cleans the senator out. One other player, the corrupt police lieutenant Liebowitz (Jude Ciccolella), warns him to flee the city, but instead Johnny takes Marcie out for a night on the town. He walks her home when Roark's goons suddenly attack him. He fights them off and tells Marcie to meet him at a hotel before he is escorted into the Senator's waiting limousine. In payment for the humiliation he suffered at the card game, Roark takes back his money and uses a pair of pliers to break three of Johnny's fingers. They toss him from the car and the Senator shoots Johnny in the leg. Roark then reveals that he recognized Johnny as his illegitimate son. However, he remarks that he only considered his dead son Roark Jr. his flesh and blood. He leaves Johnny alive, preferring to let him suffer, and Johnny swears revenge.

"A Dame to Kill For"

Years before "The Big Fat Kill", Dwight McCarthy (Josh Brolin) attempts to put his violent past behind him, working as a private detective and leading a life of complete sobriety, struggling daily to refuse his inner demons. After saving the life of a young hooker (Juno Temple) who is nearly murdered by her businessman lover (Ray Liotta) he receives an unexpected phone call from his former lover Ava Lord (Eva Green), who left Dwight four years prior for a wealthy tycoon, Damian Lord (Marton Csokas). She begs him to meet her at Kadie's saloon, and despite his embittered feelings, he agrees. When Ava arrives, she begs forgiveness for leaving him, and infers she is afraid for her life before her massive chauffeur, Manute (Dennis Haysbert) arrives to escort her home. Unable to get her out of his mind, Dwight sneaks into Damian Lord's estate, where he observes Ava swimming, but is caught and beaten for his trouble. Dwight is returned home, where a nude Ava waits for him. He tries to throw her out, but can't resist her and they make love. She tells him that Damian and Manute torture her physically and mentally, and she knows Damian will kill her soon. Manute arrives and viciously beats a naked Dwight, tossing him out a window.

Determined to rescue Ava, Dwight recruits Marv to help him, and they mount an assault on Lord's compound. Marv attacks Manute, putting him in traction and tearing out his eye. Dwight confronts Damian Lord, who denies Ava's accusations, and an enraged Dwight beats him to death. As he reacts in horror, Ava appears and shoots Dwight several times, taunting him and thanking him for helping her murder her husband and take over his business. She shoots him in the face and forces him to fall out of a window, where Marv rescues him and takes him to Old Town. Dwight's old flame, Gail (Rosario Dawson), recognizes him and saves his life. With the help of Gail and the deadly assassin Miho (Jamie Chung), Dwight undergoes reconstructive surgery on his face and plots his revenge.

Meanwhile, two detectives, Mort (Christopher Meloni) and Bob (Jeremy Piven) investigate Damian's death. Ava claims Dwight was an obsessive ex-lover, and he killed her husband in a jealous rage. Bob is skeptical but Ava seduces Mort, who believes her every word. They begin an affair and Ava pressures him to find and kill Dwight. When Mort, obsessed with Ava, attempts to track Dwight down in Old Town (an action that would break the truce between the police and the prostitutes), Bob attempts to stop him. An enraged Mort shoots Bob in the head, then turns the gun on himself and dies on the roadside. Out of options, Ava reluctantly partners with the mob boss Wallenquist (Stacey Keach).

Dwight (with his reconstructed new face), accompanied by Gail and Miho, poses as Wallenquist's man from Phoenix. Inside Ava's estate, however, Manute sees past the new face and captures Dwight. Gail and Miho strike from Dwight's car, and Dwight shoots Manute with a hidden .25 he had up his left sleeve. Six bullets fail to kill him, and Manute aims shakily at Dwight as Ava unexpectedly grabs one of Manute's guns, shooting Manute several times. She attempts to convince Dwight to pair with her, and that the pain he suffered revealed his true intentions, but Dwight shoots her mid-kiss, and she dies in his arms.

"The Long Bad Night (Part II)"

Johnny visits an unlicensed doctor, Kroenig (Christopher Lloyd) who shoots up heroin before trading his services for Johnny's last forty dollars and his shoes. Realizing he left Marcie unprotected, Johnny flees to her hotel, but finds the Senator waiting for him along with Marcie's dismembered head and hands. Again, the senator lets him go. Intent on taking down Roark, Johnny scrounges a dollar from a sympathetic waitress (Lady Gaga) which he uses to regain enough money playing slots to buy his way into Roark's game the following night. Playing a card shark's con, Johnny folds his first few hands, allowing Roark to taunt him about his dead mother. He once again cons Roark into going all in, and then reveals his winning hand. Johnny taunts his father, reminding him that tonight's story of how the same man beat him twice will follow him for the rest of his life. His vengeance completed, Johnny smiles resignedly as Roark dismissively shoots him in the head, commanding his men to get rid of the body.

"Nancy's Last Dance"

Set four years after "That Yellow Bastard", Nancy Callahan struggles to cope with John Hartigan's selfless suicide. Drinking heavily, she is obsessed with vengeance on Senator Roark, for having driven Hartigan to kill himself. As she wallows in despair, the ghost of Hartigan (Bruce Willis) watches over her, unable to reach her but still attempting to help. On the same night that Johnny joins the backroom poker game, Nancy attempts to shoot Roark from the stage of Kadie's, but finds herself unable to pull the trigger, possibly due to Hartigan's ghostly influence.

Nancy hallucinates a visit from Roark, and shortly thereafter cuts her hair and smashes a mirror, using its shards to cut her face. She decides to get Marv to help her kill Roark by showing him the scars, and making him believe Roark was responsible. As they step out of the club, they meet a motorcycle gang there to shoot up the place. Marv kills two, but leaves their leader for Nancy to finish off. The pair mount an assault on Roark's compound, and Marv slaughters Roark's bodyguards while Nancy picks off the guards with a crossbow. Marv is wounded, and Nancy continues on to confront Roark by herself. Roark shoots her several times and is about to finish her off when Hartigan's ghost suddenly flashes in the mirror to distract him, which gives Nancy enough time to recover and shoot.

The Verdict: 

Much like the film itself, I'm going to split this review into four sections. 

"Just Another Saturday Night"

This short introduction instantly throws a bit of confusion at viewers right out of the bat. This is a common issue with this film as I personally had to remind myself about how all of these events in this film take place in chronological order. The thing you have to keep in mind that the bulk of this film is a prequel to a bulk of the events of the first film, with Nancy's story being the only exception.

This introduction serves as an interesting action-packed set piece to kick things off. This portion of the film also serves as a humble reminder that Marv is ultimately the star of the Sin City franchise and we're going to be seeing a LOT more of him in this film by the time the credits roll.  

"A Dame to Kill For"

Without a shadow of a doubt, this easily the best story of the entire film on pure acting alone. Josh Bolin and Eva Green have a bit of magical chemistry together on screen and I don't mean their "steamy" sexual encounter either. Every scene that they are in together is reminiscent of Mary Astor and Humphrey Bogart's on-screen chemistry in The Maltese Falcon (1941).

It makes me wish that they were alive back during the boom period of classic film noir films in this genre as their talents would truly be appreciated back then than in their performance in this film. Don't get me wrong, their performance is nothing less of phenomenal but I think this film was skipped over by many fans of the original, namely due to the significant gap between the original theatrical release and this sequel. 

Call me biased but I felt that Jamie Chung was a mediocre replacement for Devon Aoki's portrayal of Miho. Sadly, Aoki hasn't been seen in anything since 2009, so that's a shame that Robert Rodriguez couldn't get her to come back. While we're on the subject of the girls of Old Town, I felt that their involvement was a little rushed towards the end of this chapter. They just had to squeeze in a quick cameo from Goldy and Wendy (Jaime King) to serve as a humble reminder of what time frame this took place compared to the first film.

Another thing that looked rather cheesy to me during this chapter was Dwight's post-surgery appearance. The only thing they did was give Josh Brolin a wig to look like Clive Owen. So you're telling me that they couldn't have offered Clive Owen a paycheck just to film that last sequence? They got Bruce Willis to film that split second of footage for those "ghost" of Hartigan sequences and he looks ancient now. You KNEW that they filmed that footage immediately after the first film. 

"The Long Bad Night (Part I & II)"

I personally felt that Robert Rodriguez could have gotten just about anyone else to play a role that Joseph Gordon-Levitt was easily typecast into this part for, but it was an interesting narrative nonetheless. It manages to add another layer of villainy to Senator Roark's already extensive resume. It's not like audiences already don't hate this guy enough, but to see the lows he's willing to go against his own son just to make an example of his show of power and dominance in Sin City is downright ruthless. 

At the same time, the audience is treated to Nancy's deteriorating sanity as she mourns over the loss of Hartigan. 

I have to wonder if Lady Gaga appearing in Robert Rodriguez's films is going to be a recurring theme. First, she was in Machete Kills earlier this year (and more likely will appear in Machete Kills, Again!) and now she appears in this. I enjoyed her in both roles, so I'm not complaining in the least. 

"Nancy's Last Dance"

Nancy's sanity has been deteriorating from the start of this film. This final act is where she finally reaches her boiling point and took action against Senator Roark. I loved Nancy's transformation - mentally and physically - that took place over the course of the film, but sadly, it's Marv who steals the spotlight from her during this chapter.

Nancy is the one who gets to pull the trigger on Senator Roark, but felt the final confrontation was a little underwhelming after Marv pretty much did all of the dirty work for her outside of killing Roark. Nancy couldn't even do that on her own without Hartigan's ghost giving her the distraction that she needed to get the jump on Roark for the kill. To say that Sin City has the trend of making (almost) all of the women in these films bad-asses, Nancy turned out pretty damn weak in this last hurrah. 

Closing Thoughts 

If I had to take anything away from this film right off the bat, it's that the black-and-white color scheme isn't as cool and edgy as it was back in 2005. The nine year gap between films did not do the style any favors in the least either. That being said, I wish this sequel came out a LOT sooner, but I can't hold it against Robert Rodriguez and this film's cast and crew for the numerous setbacks (mostly casting issues) that plagued them throughout the years.

Another issue I have with this film that there's a little bit of confusion on the chronological order of all of the events in these films. We saw Marv die in the first film, only for him to pop up constantly in this film from start to finish. For fans of the Sin City graphic novels, this is a no-brainer how these events played out, but for the average moviegoer this could be a tad bit confusing.

Overall, the film as a whole isn't bad, but unlike it's predecessor, it doesn't offer anything new or fresh. Stellar performances by the cast, especially Josh Brolin and Eva Green, don't manage to save this film from being a slightly above average film. It's a damn shame too as I think there would have been more interest here if there wasn't such a huge stretch between the two films and if it didn't release in an already superhero-heavily box office period. Michael Bay's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Marvel Studios' Guardians of the Galaxy were still in theaters at the time, so that didn't do this film any favors either.

As a result, Robert Rodriguez delivers his second mediocre big budget box office release in a row for 2014, following in the footsteps of Machete Kills. Much like that film, I'm going to have to give this film a slightly above average score to fit.

Sin City: A Dame To Kill For nets a 8 out of 10. This score would have been lower but I absolutely loved Josh Brolin and Eva Green's performances in their portion of the narrative. That was worth the price of admission alone.