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'Sin City': Sure, see it, but you won't like it

Boy, am I going to get some angry e-mails, and perhaps even a nasty phone call or two — none of which I'm encouraging, by the way.

I just know how tricky it is to write something less than reverential about a movie based on a comic book, adventure series or anything with a built-in, devoted cult following. That always generates lots of passionate feedback from those devoted fans who take any criticism as blasphemy and a personal insult.

Dimension Films 'Sin City' The verdict: 'Sin City' is a stunning place to visit. But you wouldn't want to live there. Directors: Frank Miller, Robert Rodriguez Starring: Bruce Willis, Mickey Rourke, Elijah Wood, Nick Stahl, Jessica Alba, Rosario Dawson Run time: 126 minutes Release date: April 1, 2005 Rating: R for sustained strong stylized violence, nudity and sexual content including dialogue. See showtimes On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime Rate "Sin City"   Go see it   Make it a matinee   Wait to rent   Don't bother Voter Limit: Once per Hour View Poll Results

So I know I'm inviting a world of cyber-hurt when I tell you that Frank Miller's Sin City, based on the comic genius' series of graphic novels, is visually stunning, stylishly devastating and well-acted, but eventually sinks under its high-school delight in stark violence, unchecked gore and tired depiction of all women as sexually charged vamps, victims, strippers or hookers. Or vampy victims. Or victim hookers.

But almost all hookers.

I'd been looking forward to this movie for months, man — the posters, with various members of the fetching cast (Jessica Alba, Benicio Del Toro, Bruce Willis) jumping off the paper in vivid black and white, like living, breathing comic characters. Also, I love director Robert Rodriguez, who shares a directing credit with Miller, and Quentin Tarantino, who appears as the special guest director of one scene (Special Guest Director? Who's he supposed to be? Heather Locklear on Melrose Place?)

On top of that, I'm a huge fan of Miller's Batman series, so I know how visually visionary and starkly emotional his work can be. I was thrilled by the campy-serious beauty of the black-and-white film, punctuated with dialed-up color in all the right spots, like the creamy yellow of a femme fatale's hair, or the sickly jaundice of an arch-fiend's skin.

We're in the corrupt, dangerous, Raymond Chandler-meets-Deadwood reality of Sin City, a lawless municipality ruled by shady politicians and ruthless cops, who have a shaky peace with the prostitutes and various ne'er do-wells that inhabit the city's nether regions.

One of the last good cops is Hartigan (Bruce Willis), who has a bad heart and a promise to protect a little girl he once saved from being raped and killed by a madman. There are actually a lot of madmen running around, a few of them with badges.

Then there's Marv (the fabulous sad Mickey Rourke), a monstrous brute of a lonely lug who falls in love after one night with a kindly hooker named Goldie (Jaime King). Unfortunately, the morning after is short-lived, as Marv finds Goldie murdered in bed next to him, and vows to avenge the death of the one person who was ever nice to him. And when Marv avenges, boy does he avenge. Big time.

Also dwelling in Sin City is Gail (Rosario Dawson), a hooker with a heart of shiny coal, at least when it comes to protecting her girls, including avenging ninja Miho (Devon Aoki) and sweet-faced Becky (Gilmore Girls' sweet-faced Alexis Bledel.) She teams up with lovesick Dwight (the perfect, perfect-looking Clive Owen) to fight back against the vicious cops preying on the ladies.

All of this is, as I said, gorgeous, and that makes sense because Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino take big visual risks that other big-budget directors don't get near. I've always thought those two make great nervy movies because they're deeply in touch with that 12-year-old boy inside that's too giddy to know he's not supposed to do certain things.

Unfortunately, that 12-year-old boy also doesn't know when to step back from the Mountain Dew and dial it back a smidgen. So while Sin City is as beautiful and imaginative as the best of those filmmakers' works (Rodriguez's El Mariachi, Once Upon A Time In Mexico, Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs and the more restrained parts of Kill Bill), it's also sloppy and sometimes unbearably sexist.

Look, I know this is a fictional world and the imagination is supposed to take over from logic. But I don't want to live in a world where every one of my gender is a hooker. A nice hooker, maybe. A hooker who needs other hookers and is the luckiest hooker in the world.

But still a hooker.

Still, Sin City is worth seeing, perhaps just for the lush scenery and Rourke, who used to play physically beautiful scamps and now is aces playing a physically broken but inwardly noble outcast. Just expect a lot of unnecessary gore that ultimately outlives the lushness.

And be sure to spell my name right in those e-mails, OK?

The Flick Chick's Bottom Line: Sin City — a stunning place to visit. But you wouldn't want to live there.