Sin City
(☆☆☆)
R,126 minutes,
South Wind 12
These days it seems that every other blockbuster that gets released is based on a comic book, but the formula of adapting these works to the screen has been, at best, hit or miss. It would seem that a strong director would be able to instill a unique worldview in these movies, but while some filmmakers (Tim Burton, Sam Raimi) have thrived, other great directors (Ang Lee) have floundered.
Sin City, however, has the luxury of two directors. Frank Miller, who is also the creator of the Sin City graphic novels, served as director of the more narrative aspects of the film. Robert Rodriguez (From Dusk Till Dawn, Desperado) took control of the technical direction.
Does the move pay off? Yes and no. Visually, Sin City is everything you'd hope for. The characters inhabit a stark black and white world where the occasional splash of color serves only to reinforce the ever-present bleakness. The film was shot using live actors transposed onto a computer animated background, and the technology is so adept that what is real and what is CGI is indiscernible.
What keeps the movie from attaining perfection though is the story. The film is a loosely knotted triptych that follows three grizzled loners (actors Mickey Rourke, Clive Owen and Bruce Willis) as they seek redemption by saving the women they love. That tale works fine once, but by the third rehashing of the same story the movie starts to drag. Rodriguez loves to ramp up the gore (I remember five castration scenes, but I may have lost count) and it works in a sort of cartoonish way. But the dialogue is flat, and there is too much reliance of voice over narration. Evidently, the hope was to mimic the comic's essence as much as possible, but in a film adaptation, it's necessary to spruce up the conversation at least a little bit.
Will Lamborn
Sin City is a visual treat. So much so that it makes up for the pedestrian plot. I just wish the film had spent less time narrating to me what was going on and spent more time on the whole "hookers with guns" theme.
all images courtesy www.movies.yahoo.com
Gunner Palace (1/2)
PG-13, 86 minutes
Coming soon to Liberty Hall
Independent filmmakers Michael Tucker and Petra Epperlein offer a soldier's-eye view of the new Iraq in Gunner Palace, a powerful and unfiltered war documentary set in and around Baghdad between September 2003 and April 2004. Tucker spent these months with the 2-3 Field Artillery Battalion, also known as the Gunners, who were living in a bombed-out palace once owned by the late Uday Hussein.
Dispassionately narrated by co-director/cinematographer Tucker, Gunner Palace follows a colorful assortment of American soldiers as they patrol the streets of Baghdad by day and sniff out insurgents by night. They kid around, quote Full Metal Jacket and perform in remarkable sessions of free-style rap. Their worst fear is encountering an IED, or Improvised Explosive Device. In one terrifying scene, Tucker's camera shakes from a distance as a soldier approaches what may be an IED or just a curiously
placed piece of trash.
Gunner Palace includes sights and sounds most Americans have never experienced in the two-year history of the war. We see American soldiers actively pursuing Iraqi girls for dates. We also hear excerpts from Freedom Radio, which is part of American Forces Network, ensuring servicemen not to worry about their student loans.
Whatever your feelings toward the war, this is a must-see movie. Faced with an increasingly squeamish mainstream media at home, Americans need better access to the situation on the ground in Iraq. The gap in coverage, as well as innovations in digital video technology, has left an opening for independent filmmakers. These really are mighty times for independent movies.
In one of the free-style scenes, a Gl says of his tour in Iraq, "No need to like this, but please respect it." With films like Gunner Palace and A Company of Soldiers, the recent Frontline documentary, viewers have the opportunity to fulfill this young soldier's wish.
—Stephen Shupe
18
Jayplay 04.07.05