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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Sin City (Blu-ray) (Disney) (2005)

Sin City (Blu-ray) (Disney) (2005)

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Released 9-Jun-2009

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Action Audio-Visual Commentary-Cine-Explore with Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller
Audio Commentary-by Directors Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller
Audio Commentary-by Robert Rodiguez and Special Guest Quentin Tarantino
Alternate Audio-Recording of the Austin, Texas Premiere Audience Reaction
Featurette-Kill 'Em Good: Interactive Comic Book
Featurette-How It Went Down: Convincing Frank Miller to Make the Film
Featurette-Special Guest Director: Quentin Tarantino
Featurette-A Hard Top with a Decent Engine: The Cars of Sin City
Featurette-Booze, Broads and Guns: The Props of Sin City
Featurette-Making the Monsters: Special Effects Make-Up
Featurette-Trench Coats and Fishnets: The Costumes of Sin City
Theatrical Trailer
Teaser Trailer
Featurette-15-Minute Flic School
Featurette-All Green Screen Version
Featurette-The Long Take
Featurette-Sin City: Live in Concert
Featurette-10-Minute Cooking School
Rating Rated MA
Year Of Production 2005
Running Time 124:03
RSDL / Flipper No/No
Dual Disc Set
Cast & Crew
Start Up Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding 2,4 Directed By Frank Miller
Robert Rodriguez
Quentin Tarantino
Studio
Distributor

Walt Disney Studios Home Ent.
Starring Jessica Alba
Devon Aoki
Alexis Bledel
Powers Boothe
Jude Ciccolella
Jeffrey J. Dashnaw
Rosario Dawson
Jesse De Luna
Benicio Del Toro
Jason Douglas
Michael Clarke Duncan
Tommy Flanagan
Christina Frankenfield
Case Amaray Variant
RPI $44.95 Music John Debney
Graeme Revell
Robert Rodriguez


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 (4608Kb/s)
Italian dts 5.1 (768Kb/s)
German dts 5.1 (768Kb/s)
Spanish dts 5.1 (768Kb/s)
English Descriptive Audio Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
English Alternate Audio Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 1080p
Original Aspect Ratio 1.85:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles English
English for the Hearing Impaired
Italian
German
Spanish
Smoking Yes
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    To me it seemed like yesterday, a new Robert Rodriguez film was coming out and what's more, it was based on Frank Miller's neo-noir comic book series, Sin City. Do you remember it at your local theatre, mid-winter 2005? Fast forward four years and now you can rent or own this unique film on a digital storage format that transmits video and audio clearer than in any way you've experienced the film before. The Australian region-free release of Sin City on Blu-ray would have to be the epitome of all Blu-ray releases at the time of writing this review, the combination of video, audio and extras on this release is that good!

    Fans of Frank Miller's comic book series would be familiar with the following story. After the Hollywood screenplay adaptation of Miller's Robocop 3, Miller was highly skeptical of anyone in the film business wanting to further adapt his work. He felt that the film industry could not do his comics or scripts justice on film, and besides, he was happy with the legacy that his comic series enjoyed (and continue to enjoy). Robert Rodriguez, who has used digital filmmaking exclusively since Spy Kids 2 (2002), was confident he could translate Miller's stories into a movie. He approached Miller initially, who rejected his offer. Rodriguez only got Miller's approval after he had shot the eight-minute sequence of the Sin City story: The Customer is Always Right with Josh Hartnett and Marley Shelton using his own money to shoot the sequence. Thus, effectively Rodriguez started shooting Sin City in 2004 without the actual film rights! After Miller had viewed the results, Quentin Tarantino was also invited to see the initial work on the project. He was skeptical about shooting with digital cameras onto green screen, but was also impressed with the results after background scenes were added. Thus was begun a unique film project unlike anything that any major Hollywood studio would ever approve.

    Sin City is the combination of four Frank Miller short stories in the Sin City series: The Customer is Always Right, That Yellow B******, The Hard Goodbye and The Big Fat Kill. Made for only $40 million (a lower than average production total for a Hollywood feature film), Sin City was a critical and commercial smash-hit. It has been in the Imdb Top 100 rated films since August 2005, reaching a highest position of number 58 in May 2006.

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Transfer Quality

Video

    Sin City was shot exclusively using High Definition Digital Cameras using a combination of green screen and post-production editing to achieve it's unique comic-book visual style.

    The aspect ratio of the movie is 1:85:1. On Blu-ray the film is 16x9 enhanced for widescreen televisions and is presented in a 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer.

    There is no grain or low level noise on this transfer whatsoever. Contrast and shadow is so defined and sharp that Sin City would have to be a reference movie for you to show your friends of what Blu-ray is capable of looking like on a High Definition television.

    Sin City was shot in colour with black and white contrast added later in post-production (although the effect could be viewed live during the shooting of scenes). This explains why That Yellow B****** was actually blue when the film was shot, so as to prevent colour bleeding during editing. The film is mostly deep blacks and whites, but there are bold instances of colour used throughout the movie that add to it's visual style.

    There are no MPEG Artefacts, Film-To-Video Artefacts or Film or Video Artefacts whatsoever in this transfer.

    Subtitles are in a plain white colour in English, English for the Hearing Impaired, Italian, German and Spanish.

Video Ratings Summary
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The movie features a DTS-HD Master Lossless Audio 5.1 surround track encoded at 4.5 mbps. For the purposes of this review I used my Sony BDP-S550 Blu-ray player to encode this lossless audio track and played it back through my amplifier using analogue output leads. I would have to rate this audio soundtrack as a reference soundtrack, highlighting the discrete, surround channel capabilities of uncompressed audio on Blu-ray.

    The theatrical version features the aforementioned English DTS-HDMA 5.1 soundtrack encoded at 4.5 mbps. There are three language dubs encoded in DTS 5.1 audio at 768 kbps for Italian, German and Spanish. An English Audio Descriptive track is included using a Dolby Digital 2.0 surround track. Both audio commentaries are encoded at 192 kbps using Dolby Digital 2.0 surround and the film can also be played using the Austin, Texas premiere audience reaction. This track is uses Dolby Digital 5.1 surround, encoded at 448 kbps.

    Dialogue is not only clear, characters each have their own unique tone to distinguish what they are saying. Some characters have been mixed for specific channels. Voiceover narrative dominates the front channels, and it is used extensively in all three stories.

    The music supports the neo-noir style of the film, it really emphasises the bass in the soundtrack.

    The surround sound channels are used to great effect with sound effects panning from side-to-side and front-to-back and vice versa.

    The Subwoofer is used often during action sequences to highlight crashes and explosions, but it is not overwhelming.

Audio Ratings Summary
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

Audio-Visual Commentary - Cine-Explore with Audio Commentary by Directors Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller

This feature is the standout extra on this fine Blu-ray release. If you have a Profile 1.1 Blu-ray player you can play the film with this cine-explore feature which is a Picture-in-Picture video commentary showing the film with shots from pre and post-production and Frank Miller's comic drawings, with Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller's audio commentary playing as the soundtrack. Although playing this feature disables switching audio and subtitling "on-the-fly", it's a great bonus exclusive to Blu-ray.

Audio Commentary - Directors Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller

This can be selected on the theatrical version, disc one and plays as the soundtrack to the main feature. Both co-directors discuss the inspiration of the film, Frank Miller's comic book series and the production techniques used to make the film.

Audio Commentary - Director Robert Rodriguez and Special Guest Director Quentin Tarantino

Rodriguez and Tarantino are close friends, with both directors working together to do the Grindhouse films in 2007, and this commentary track brings out their casual manner with each other. Bruce Willis makes a special guest appearance in this commentary.

Alternate Audio - Recording of the Austin, Texas Premiere Audience Reaction

This audio track features the recording of the Austin, Texas audience reaction during the film's premiere.

Featurette - The Recut, Extended version on Disc 2 (141:45)

Disc Two features the Recut, Extended version of the film with an extra 18 minutes. Unlike the DVD Recut, Extended editions, the stories can now be played chronologically with a "play all" option - That Yellow B****** (47:26), The Customer is Always Right (8:25), The Hard Goodbye (40:57) and The Big Fat Kill (44:53) or separately. However, please note that each story does not contain chapter stops, unlike the theatrical version on disc one. The Recut, Extended version has an English DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack and dubs in DTS 5.1 for Italian, German and Spanish. Subtitles are available in English, English for the Hearing Impaired, Italian, German and Spanish.

Featurette - Kill 'Em Good: Interactive Comic Book

This is another Blu-ray exclusive feature which allows you to use your remote control to navigate through comic book scenes.

Featurette - How It Went Down: Convincing Frank Miller to Make the Film (5:41)

Robert Rodriguez shares how he convinced author Frank Miller to allow him to make the film.

Featurette - Special Guest Director: Quentin Tarantino (7:13)

Quentin Tarantino discusses his guest director's role in Sin City and how Robert Rodriguez encouraged him to shoot digitally.

Featurette - A Hard Top with a Decent Engine: The Cars of Sin City (7:34)

This feature show the classic cars that were used in the film based on the cars used in the comic book series.

Featurette - Booze, Broads and Guns: The Props of Sin City (10:57)

Go behind-the-scenes to see the props that were manufactured for and used in the film.

Featurette - Making the Monsters: Special Effects Make-Up (9:04)

How exactly did they get Mickey Rourke to look like Marv? Frank Miller assisted the crew with the shape of his face, but it took five prototypes! Make-up effects for Benny and That Yellow B****** are also included in this extra.

Featurette - Trench Coats and Fishnets: The Costumes of Sin City (7:34)

The costume designer on the film discusses the look of the costumes and their colour to reflect light and contrast in keeping with the visual look of the film.

Theatrical Trailer (2:07)

The original theatrical trailer.

Teaser Trailer (1:53)

This is similar to the theatrical trailer showing scenes from the film, only slightly shorter.

Featurette - 15-Minute Flic School (12:24)

Robert Rodriguez shows the test footage used to convince Frank Miller to make the film.

Featurette - All Green Screen Version (12:27)

This is the theatrical version of the film without any post-production effects and sped-up to play in twelve minutes.

Featurette - The Long Take (17:45)

This is a behind-the-scenes look at the car scene that Quentin Tarantino directed with Clive Owen and Benecio del Toro

Featurette - Sin City: Live in Concert (9:15)

Robert Rodriguez shows his short film of Bruce Willis and his band, The Accelerators playing after a day's shooting in Austin, Texas. The cast of Richard Linklater's A Scanner Darkly also join in on the party!

Featurette - 10-Minute Cooking School (6:24)

This is a common feature on Robert Rodriguez DVD's, a ten minute feature showing how to cook a dish that he would cook for the crew or himself when shooting a film. An interesting feature because it shows Rodriguez to be an accomplished chef!

Censorship

    There is censorship information available for this title. Click here to read it (a new window will open). WARNING: Often these entries contain MAJOR plot spoilers.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    Sin City has been released in Blu-ray in a Region-free version in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. It has also been released in the Netherlands in Region B.

    The United States release has the same extras as the Australian Region-free release, with bonus trailers for No Country for Old Men, Lost, The Proposal and Confessions of a Shopaholic. Dubs are in Portuguese and Spanish in Dolby Digital 5.1.

    The Canadian Release has no extras. Soundtracks included are in English and French.

    The United Kingdom release is identical to the Australian Region-free release.

    The Dutch release has no extras. The lone soundtrack is in English with dutch subtitling.

    All releases use the same MPEG-4 AVC transfer. The Australian Region-free release is a quality version of Sin City on Blu-ray, comparable with the United States and United Kingdom releases.

Summary

    I used to think that my Region 1 DVD copy of Sin City, with the theatrical and Recut, Extended versions of the film was the definitive release of Sin City. This Blu-ray release, with it's exemplary video and audio transfer, makes the previous excellent DVD release incomparable in relation to picture and sound. The Blu-ray release also includes all the extras from the previous extended worldwide releases, with the exception of the Sin-Chroni-City interactive feature and the hard copy reprint of The Hard Goodbye graphic novel.

    The only negative feature about the Blu-ray releases in all regions is the fact that the extras ported from the DVD extended releases are in standard definition and not 16x9 enhanced for widescreen televisions. Otherwise, Sin City is the new reference disc to show the capabilities of Blu-ray video and audio to your friends.

    Sin City on Blu-ray would have to be the Blu-ray release of the year for 2009 so far, comparable to The Dark Knight, Wall-E and Pinocchio. Three of these four releases have been produced by Disney, who must be acknowledged for their pioneering support of this exciting digital home-video format.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© John Stivaktas (I like my bio)
Friday, June 05, 2009
Review Equipment
DVDSony BDP-S550 (Firmware updated Version 019), using HDMI output
DisplaySamsung LA46A650 46 Inch LCD TV Series 6 FullHD 1080P 100Hz. Calibrated with THX Optimizer. This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio DecoderSony STR-K1000P. Calibrated with THX Optimizer.
AmplificationSony HTDDW1000
SpeakersSony 6.2 Surround (Left, Front, Right, Surround Left, Surround Back, Surround Right, 2 subwoofers)

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