Blu-ray Specs
Video: 1080p HD
Audio: English 5.1 DTS HD Master Audio/ Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital
This 2005 original release of the visually stunning picture is now being offered in its truest form now available in Blu-ray. A masterpiece of capturing the magic of black and white shots with instilled color schemes brilliantly depicts the fashion and vision of the graphic novelist Frank Miller. The cast is very impressive and is quite a lineup of fantastic actors and actresses. Bruce Willis, Jessica Alba, Mickey Rourke, Michael Madsen, Rosario Dawson, Clive Owen, and a host of greats grace the screen in this stunning display of action and visual contrast.
The plot follows three of Frank Miller’s graphic novels, “That Yellow Bastard”, “Hard Goodbye” and “Big Fat Kill” but has a couple of minor stories as well. “That Yellow Bastard” follows a soon to be retiring cop on the trail of disfigured serial killer. The biggest problem that faces Detective John Hartigan (Willis), is that he has a bad heart, but his drive and resolve for saving an 11 year olds life, winds him up in a tangled mess of corruption and torture.
“Hard Goodbye” is the story of Marv (Rourke) whom is set up to be the fall guy of what are essentially the murders of hookers. When the only woman in his life is killed after showing him a good time, Marv goes on a rampage with the mission of killing all who stand in his way to find out the real killer of his “Goldie”. Mickey Rourke delivers a great performance.
“Big Fat Kill” comprises of Dwight (Clive Owen) follows his girlfriends ex after he bullies her. In hot pursuit, Dwight finds himself in a twisted situation once they reach “old town”, which is run by hookers as their own society. Once things go wrong and the ex is found out to be a cop, the understanding between cops and hookers is threatened. The task at hand becomes to have Dwight remove the problem, which turns out to be a bigger task than was originally anticipated.
Bonus feature are of plenty which are sure give the audience some good perspective on how the movie came together, with commentary from the Directors, Robert Rodriguez, Frank Miller, and Quentin Tarantino. Also included is interactive comic book (exclusive to Blu-ray), the making of the costumes, props, special effects and even extended, uncut, unrated versions of the stories presented in their entirety without the cuts back and forth of the editing for the theatrical version.
If ever there was a movie that needed to be released on Blu-ray, Sin City is that one. No matter if you saw it before on standard definition, the crisp black and white with sharp reds and various different colors shine supreme. Unbelievable clarity of the film is stunning. Audio levels hold up very nice in both dialogue and action scenes alike. The transition between B+W to color and back again is flawless and very hard to catch.
The direction of this film was very unique to the vision that Frank Miller wanted. I would definitely recommend that this is a must have for the avid HD buffs. A masterpiece like no other, it is sure to please both the eyes and mind. The story line was very easy to follow and the whole package was edited excellently.
Reviewed by Michael Albaugh
