This week in theatres: a pulpy film noir actioner; a weepy melodrama; and a sappy football tale.
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For
The long-awaited sequel to Sin City, the 2005 film helmed by Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, and Frank Miller, based on the graphic novels by Miller, is finally here. Like the first outing, the film noir flick is shot mostly in black and white, with cool neon color splashes, and features a return of many of the original characters, played by Bruce Willis, Jessica Alba, Mickey Rourke, and Rosario Dawson, as well as new faces, including Eva Green, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ray Liotta, and Christopher Meloni. The sequel is missing Tarantino from the directing duties, but the same pulpy look seems to permeate the movie.
Perfect For: Fans of the original, and film noir with a splash of ultra-violence. Grown ups only, thanks.
What the Critics Say: It commits the worst crime of all in movies: it’s boring. Variety: “Rare indeed is the movie that features this many bared breasts, pummeled crotches and severed noggins and still leaves you checking your watch every 10 minutes.” And writes the New York Post: “It's 100 solid minutes of wearying pastiche, and I found myself checking my watch a lot.”
Our Take: I should probably heed the critics’ advice, but I loved the look of the first one so much—curiosity might get the best of me.
If I Stay
A young girl gets hit in a car crash, But she’s just fallen in love with a boy and she has to make a choice as she hovers in between worlds (because this totally happens) if she should go to the afterlife or come back to an uncertain future in the world. Chloe Moretz is the star of this sappy movie based on the young adult novel of the same name by Gayle Forman.
Perfect For: You like mystical, weepy melodramas with no basis in reality?
What the Critics Say: Predictably, they think it’s pure hokum. But they say Moretz holds the whole thing together. Writes Time: “You may wonder how Moretz landed in the Cartoonistan of this dewy melodrama, and chalk it up to alien abduction. Yet she almost convinces you, solely on the power of her commitment.”
Our Take: Unless you’re a 13-year old girl, nope.
When the Game Stands Tall
There are shades of Friday Night Lights in this football feel-good drama set at a high school in Concord, California. The team has a 150-game winning streak that is jolted when they lose a game. Based on a book about a true story, the movie takes huge liberties and creates entirely new characters, but hinges on a murder of a student and a heart attack of the coach.
Perfect For: You like high school sports dramas and are looking for something to take the fam to see.
What the Critics Say: A little too TV movie of the week. Writes the Washington Post: “When it comes down to fourth and goal, the movie is more about moving the pigskin than moving the audience.”
Our Take: Only if you’re a big football fanatic.
