As ultra-violent as the first, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For just isn't as groundbreaking
Co-directors Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller reunite to bring the second instalment to the big-screen from Miller's Sin City graphic novels.
A Dame to Kill For weaves two classic stories from the books, alongside two new stories that Miller penned especially for this movie. Much of the same is the order of the day in this second movie, as we see hard boiled citizens cross paths with some of its more notorious inhabitants.
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For starts off in the same vein as its predecessor; dark macabre setting, deep toned narrative and a seedy sense of sex. We're introduced once again to Sin City's most known residents; Marv, Nancy, Gail and a new faced Dwight, now played by Josh Brolin.
Jessica Alba and Mickey Rourke who play Nancy and Marv, respectively, are the shining lights. Both actors rekindle the love they have for playing these broken-down characters. Josh Brolin's performance as Dwight doesn't reach the heights of Clive Owen's in the original. Brolin falls flat in certain scenes, never portraying Dwight in the same hard-nosed way Owen did.
One of the new stories Miller wrote for the film, The Long Hard Night, features Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Jonny, the illegitimate son of Senator Roark (Powers Boothe). Overall, it's an interesting mini story that is split into two parts at opposite ends of the movie. But the real problem with this short narrative lays with it finding any sort of relevance to the rest of the movie. As enjoyable as it is, it just sticks out like a sore thumb.
The violence is still as brutal and blood-soaked as the first, but A Dame to Kill for isn't as groundbreaking as the original. The movie can be a tad guilty of riffing too much on film noir notions, but to give Rodriguez credit, he never ventures too far away from the morals of the first movie.
