DVD Review by David Blackwell

DETAILS: 124 minutes (original theatrical version)/ 147 minutes (Recut version), two audio commentaries, audience audio track, featurettes, 15 minute Film school, 10 minute cooking school, The Long Take, trailers, All Green Screen version, and more

STUDIO: Dimension/ Troublemaker Studios

RELEASE DATE: 12-13-2005

SIN CITY is Frank Miller's masterpiece. The film he co-directed with Robert Rodriguez is a direct translation of the SIN CITY comic book stories. It is Film Noir that crackles with the best Film Noir classics like KISS ME DEADLY. One short story (THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT) and three major SIN CITY comic book stories (THE HARD GOODBYE, TEH BIG FAT KILL, THAT YELLOW BASTARD) are what was shot. This two disc special edition includes the original theatrical version on disc one and all four chapters in recut extended versions on disc two you can play separately from each other with new scenes which were cut from the theatrical film for pacing reasons. The Recut chapters only add actually over 8 minutes (and not 20 minutes) of new scenes (the big thing that takes up the running time is each chapter has 4 minutes of credits each). It is nice to see the extra material and play each chapter in whatever order you want, but the rest of the extras help provide the gravy for this Special Edition set,

Movie Review:  https://enterline2.tripod.com/sincity.html

DVD Review (single disc theatrical version):

https://enterline2.tripod.com/sin_city_dvd.html

VIDEO: 1.85:1 (Anamorphic Widescreen)

The transfers for the theatrical and Recut chapters look fantastic. Image detail pops out at you. The Black and White values in addition to the splashes of color are good. The big reason for why everything looks so good is due to the fact SIN CITY was shot using High Definition video cameras.

AUDIO: English 5.1 Dolby Digital, English 5.1 DTS

Subtitles: Spanish, English captions

Audio is also top notch, but the Recut chapters only have a Dolby Digital track. So you're out of luck if you want DTS for the Recut chapters on disc two.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

DISC 1- Two audio commentaries were recorded for the film. Director Robert Rodriguez is on both. He is with Frank Miller on the first track and Quentin Tarantino (and Bruce Willis) joins RR for track two. The first commentary is cool for the fact that Frank Miller says Frodo eats people. Tarantino only joins in on the commentary when it gets into his scene he directed (other than saying I arrived minutes earlier). Bruce comes in about 90 minutes into track two and the commentary ends after chapter 25. Bruce and QT loved how green screen made this quite an experience. The first commentary is more geared to story while the second one is the technical commentary. Also an audience reaction track (recorded in an Austin, Texas theater) is on the disc.

Six very interesting featurettes are on this disc: HOW IT WENT DOWN: CONVINCING FRANK MILLER TO MAKE THE FILM (that says it all), SPECIAL GUEST DIRECTOR: QUENTIN TARANTINO, A HARD TOP WITH A DECENT ENGINE: THE CARS OF SIN CITY (mostly 1950s cars were used plus some others), "BOOZE, BROADS, &GUNS: THE PROPS OF SIN CITY" (every prop was made and a few Kill Bill props were used too), MAKING THE MONSTERS: SPECIAL EFFECTS MAKE-UP (the work of Greg Nicotero and KNB), TRENCH COATS & FISHNETS: THE COSTUMES OF SIN CITY (lots of reflective materials and photos of how the costumes look in color). SIN-CHRONI-CITY INTERACTIVE MAP allows you to see where characters have been within the story with audio by Frank Miller talking about the places and characters. Also the teaser and theatrical trailers for SIN CITY are included.

DISC 2- Robert provides another edition of 10 Minute Cooking School (covering the making of Sin City Breakfast Tacos) and 15 Minute Flick School (showing how Robert convinced Frank Miller to let him do SIN CITY and how the film was made). During the production of SIN CITY, Robert and his crew took their High Definition Video Cameras and shot a music performance of Devil Woman by Bruce Willis and the Accelerators in SIN CITY LIVE.

The Long take is 14 minutes of uninterrupted take from Tarantino's guest directing, but the coolest extra on disc two is the All Green Screen Version of SIN CITY (at 800 times speed).

MENUS/ ART DESIGN: Very nice design to the way the menus look and the design of the packaging (and the art on them). The disc art is straight from Frank Miller. Also included is the full graphic novel of THE HARD GOODBYE. This is how I dreamed a SIN CITY SE would look like.

FINAL ANALYSIS: Hands down, SIN CITY (RECUT, EXTENDED, AND UNRATED) is the best special edition set for 2005. I can't wait to see what Robert Rodriguez has planned for the SE of the next SIN CITY film after he shoots it in 2006.