Quote of the Week: Been dazed and confused for so long it's not true/Wanted a woman, never bargained for you.
- Robert Plant, Dazed and Confused

Saw Sin City at last, and was blown away.

As much of a fan I am of Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez blatantly does the following: matches Pulp Fiction in the blending of a trio of stories, shows Kill Bill how to do action and makes a superb and loyal adaptation of Frank Miller's yarns. While this might not quite be up to the level of Tarantino's famous second hit, were this a decade-long directing contest, Rodriguez would have just scored a last minute winner over his friend and colleague.

Now, Batman Begins was awesome for me, but Sin City pips it to not only best comic book film of the year, but best comic book film of all time. Yes, I too, am jumping on the movie's dick. And here's why:

Firstly, the film is presented superbly. There's not a lot I can say on the visuals in this motion picture that hasn't already been said, but the black-and-white look is not only a massive step forward but also, along with the script, a nod backwards to cheesy film noir and the crime novella that spawned it. The presentation does, it's true, lose the simplicity and downright grit of Miller's original artwork, but with isolated reds and greens stranded in such a vibrant sea of blacks and whites (oxymoron? watch the film), I'm more than happy.

Now, I say the script is "cheesy", but only because this has become synonymous with the sort of Chandleresque dialogue and analogies that send shivers down the spine in Miller's original graphic novels. In other words, just the sort of stuff that turns me on to Bruce Willis' last-day-on-the-job straight-edge detective or Mickey Rourke's vigilante avenging a dame. And who can so no to a stripteasing Jessica Alba!?

Rourke, by the way, was fantastic under the prosthetics as Marv (wonders will never cease). Not entirely truthful to the comics, but you'd have to be made of stone to complain. If the Academy Awards were real, I'd be right now putting serious cash on Mickey winning the Best Supporting Actor Award. And Bruce Willis entered his finest performance since... well, ever. As for Clive Owen, it was a nice, dreary attempt at acting, which suited the character of Dwight down to the ground. What casting.

So, if you're into sex, violence, comic books and sexy violent arthouse cinema, you need this film in your life. If not, then you need this film in your life. Buy.