Sin City 2005

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: A redemption saga as overripe with religious allegory as it is anything else, in search of a confession booth or maybe just the hard stuff straight up or even a cold shower. But you won't simply leave it behind. It hurts too good. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Once the novelty of its considerable razzle-dazzle wears off, the film just sits there, because Rodriguez has made one simple, but fatal, mistake: As cinematic as they are, Miller's graphic novels aren't movies. Read more

Jeff Shannon, Seattle Times: Miller's many fans are likely to hail this as a masterpiece. Rarely has an artist in one medium been so loyally served by another. Read more

Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune: A movie of such high style, done in such a spirit of electrifying fun and creativity, that it kisses the blood right off its own violent hands. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: A worthwhile piece of eye candy. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: While Sin City on screen evokes the same feeling of bottomless decadence and dread that the novels do, there is one crucial difference -- you can put the novels down. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: Robert Rodriguez is one audaciously talented man. Read more

Bob Longino, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: What we get is a preponderance of sameness. A movie with one vibe that oversells itself and, eventually, overstays its welcome. Read more

Keith Phipps, AV Club: Its creators invent a queasily intoxicating new world. Read more

Bill Muller, Arizona Republic: Every now and then, a movie does more than gamely defend the status quo but actually advances the art form. So it is with Sin City, a stunning, brutal vision of a city gone mad. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Sin City is the first great Hollywood joy ride of the year. Read more

Carina Chocano, Los Angeles Times: The movie feels like a reductive exercise. Rodriguez might have accomplished what he set out to do, but I'm not sure he's done anyone any favors. Read more

David Germain, Associated Press: With a huge, well-chosen cast and the blessing of Miller, who was on set as Rodriguez's co-director, Sin City is a gloriously stylized world unlike anything you've seen before on screen. Read more

Eric Harrison, Houston Chronicle: Except for the striking images, it starts to fade even as you're watching it. It is such a bold and striking movie, however, that for the first time we can appreciate the full potential of what Rodriguez has wrought. Read more

Paul Clinton (CNN.com), CNN.com: Without doubt the most visually stunning live action transfer of the comic book format to the big screen ever made. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: This big-screen treatment of Miller's graphic novels is a soft- core marathon of stylized mayhem, flesh-pot excess and cinematic pretense. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: So seduced by the visual possibilities of sin that style becomes its own vice. Read more

Tom Maurstad, Dallas Morning News: Sin City is one of those films that you know going in is either going to be super-cool or ultra-awful. And in this case, depending on how you look at it, you can't lose or you can't win, because it's both. Read more

Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly: I found the movie every bit as sickening as its creators intended it to be, minus the kicks they so palpably got out of making it. Read more

Gene Seymour, Newsday: Sometimes it all seems as schematic as a theme park attraction. Mostly, though, the movie comes across like the fever dream of a smart, put-upon adolescent who'd been up all night watching every black-and-white crime movie made since the sound era. Read more

Ken Tucker, New York Magazine/Vulture: If Raymond Chandler and Daffy Duck could have produced a child, Sin City would be their baby. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Undeniably exciting, and as close to a comic book as the movies have ever gotten. It's a fun ride. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: Mixing live-action with computer-generated images, it looks like the novels, talks and bleeds like the novels, is as muscular and voluptuous as the novels -- and it leaves you breathless as only a movie can. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Unlike anything you've ever seen before. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: Sin City has been made with such scrupulous care and obvious love for its genre influences that it's a shame the movie is kind of a bore. Read more

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: In the end, I have to say I liked Sin City almost in spite of myself. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: Watch it, listen to it. Just don't chew on it too much. It's not great art, and it's not great literature. It is just the flat-out coolest looking movie to come along in years. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: There's something to appreciate around every corner -- the gritty characters, the uncompromising story, and, most of all, visuals to astound and amaze. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: It's a visualization of the pulp noir imagination, uncompromising and extreme. Yes, and brilliant. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: It's a hard, viciously funny little movie, one with all the subtlety of a billy club. But there's artistry here, too. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: To remember Sin City hours later is to remember from a different part of the brain that remembers conventional movies. Read more

David Edelstein, Slate: I loved it, I loved it, I loved it. I loved every gorgeous sick disgusting ravishing overbaked blood-spurting artificial frame of it. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: I can't endorse the content, but I can't dismiss the presentation. Sin City is superlative filmmaking in service of a poisonous view of humanity. It's a dangerous work of art. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: Sin City gives sin a great name -- it's never been more plentiful or looked so gorgeous. What a visually stunning film this is. Read more

Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star: You've got to hand it to Miller and Rodriguez. Their Sin City is no place for tourists. Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: For all its astronomical body count, Sin City is brazenly, thrillingly alive. Read more

Ben Walters, Time Out: The look of it remains exceptional, a high-contrast monochrome showcase of sheeting rain, shattering glass and white-on-black silhouettes, with occasional motifs picked out in vivid colour. Read more

Trevor Johnston, Time Out: While the book succeeded in pushing the boundaries of its medium, the film merely feels like a triumph of technology. Read more

Mike Clark, USA Today: It'll be interesting to see how time treats City's novelty value once live action/computer screen hybrids become more common. Right now it looks like one of the movies that will define its year even more than the Kill Bill duo did. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: Miller's world of rough customers living on the wild side possesses a sordid allure, which the directors dazzlingly deliver to the screen. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: Rodriguez loves his material so much that he embalmed it. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: Rodriguez and company have so faithfully captured Miller's essence, there's something beautiful about the whole thing. It's an act of inspired reverence. Read more

Stephen Hunter, Washington Post: Two hours and six minutes has never seemed so much like two and six-tenths seconds. It's pure pulp metafiction. Read more