by Dave Rhodes

Created on: August 13, 2007

Riveting, absolutely riveting. If you rent this DVD and watch it, be sure to shutter the windows first, in the event that any underage persons might pass by and peek in - it doesn't matter what scene. Also keep the remote handy, because if you have to get up to pee you'll want to pause it and even wind it back a little when you return to make sure you didn't miss anything. Several stories intertwine nicely and even though there are a handful of protagonists, every one of them is the star when it's his turn to be featured. We start with Bruce Willis, who hands it off to Mickey Rourke, who in turn hands it off to Clive Owen, and then there's the cameo appearances from Josh Hartnett, who appears in the opening scene and, uh.. elsewhere.

Powerfully antagonistic and viciously villainous performances are given by Powers Boothe, Rutger Hauer, Benicio Del Toro, Michael Clarke Duncan, Nick Stahl and (gasp) Elijah Wood. A number of leading ladies round out the bill, most notably the sexy dark angel herself, Jessica Alba, but also Carla Gugino, Rosario Dawson, Jaime King, Brittany Murphy and fresh from the wholesomeness of The WB's "Gilmore Girls", Alexis Bledel, who turns in a great performance. Her character seems to be the most innocently nave of the hardcore hookers of Sin City so Alexis is a logical choice, with her bright blue eyes, rosy cheeks and "golly, who me?" face.

Usually I'm a little wary of films with such a star-studded cast, thinking that the story must be so awful that they hired all of these Hollywood heavyweights to make up for it. No doubt they're just going to crash cars and blow things up to keep you awake - but the story (rather, stories) in Sin City failed to disappoint me. On the contrary, if it were a book I wouldn't be able to put it down (this is the point where my wife reminds me that it IS a book, or actually, a graphic novel). As it was I had a difficult time pausing the DVD for that bathroom break and coffee refill. It ain't Shakespeare folks, but it's going to grab you by the balls and not let go. If you don't have balls you might be okay, but as for me, I finished it two hours ago and I'm still walking funny.

Not only is this film a writer's dream (as in, "Darn, I wished I'D written that instead of this Frank Miller guy"), but it's also a special effects paradise. Partly in black and white in the good old film noir tradition and partly in color, it can't quite seem to figure out what it is, but it's brilliantly cohesive. You won't even

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