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By Times Staff
Published August 18, 2005

Frank Miller's Sin City

DIRECTOR: Robert Rodriguez, Frank Miller, Quentin Tarantino

CAST: Bruce Willis, Mickey Rourke, Benicio Del Toro, Clive Owen, Rosario Dawson, Jessica Alba, Elijah Wood, Michael Madsen, Carla Gugino, Brittany Murphy, Jamie King, Josh Hartnett, Nick Stahl, Michael Clarke Duncan, Rutger Hauer, Devon Aoki

SYNOPSIS: A popular series of graphic novels comes to the screen, looking much like it does on the printed page. Rodriguez created a violent, visually stunning drama with more gore than plot.

WHAT WE SAID: St. Petersburg Times film critic Steve Persall gave the movie a B-plus. "If for nothing else, Frank Miller's Sin City must be applauded as an entrancing visual achievement, forcing viewers to consider what filmmaking for the rest of this decade (at least) will be all about. You'll see this style again, probably as long as movies are made," he wrote. But allowing Tarantino to direct a segment of the film was distracting, according to Persall. "Rodriguez is willing to sacrifice creative continuity to show what the medium is capable of doing. If he put a fraction of the time spent on visual effects into the narrative, Sin City might be a classic instead of a brutally lurid novelty."

MPAA RATING: R; graphic violence, harsh profanity, nudity, disturbing themes

RUNNING TIME: 126 min.

DIRECTOR: Clare Kilner

CAST: Debra Messing, Dermot Mulroney, Jeremy Sheffield, Amy Adams, Jack Davenport, Holland Taylor

SYNOPSIS: Lonely heart (Messing, TV's Will & Grace) hires a male escort (Mulroney) to pose as her boyfriend at her sister's wedding.

WHAT WE SAID: Persall gave the movie a D-. "Messing cruises on one neurotic expression and a couple of pratfalls. She may be the only actor working who can't make a sex scene sexy, or at least amusing. Mulroney isn't exactly a ball of eroticism himself. Even if any chemistry can be detected between the two, it's of the second-grade science fair variety," he wrote. "In the long procession of romantic comedies set against weddings, The Wedding Date is the custodian cleaning up the rice."

MPAA RATING: PG-13; pervasive sexual references, brief sensuality, profanity, brief nudity

RUNNING TIME: 86 min.

DIRECTOR: Rebecca Miller

CAST: Daniel Day-Lewis, Catherine Keener, Beau Bridges, Paul Dano, Jason Lee, Jena Malone, Susanna Thompson

SYNOPSIS: An ailing hippie (Day-Lewis) has a close, idyllic relationship with his daughter (Belle), interrupted by his lover (Keener) and her two sons.

WHAT WE SAID: Persall gave the film a B-plus. "Take away an ill-advised fourth act, and Rebecca Miller's tragic Garden of Eden allegory might compare favorably with the stark character studies of her father, late playwright Arthur Miller," he wrote. "The Ballad of Jack and Rose is filled with fine performances, always beautifully photographed by Ellen Kuras and gilded with interesting song choices."

MPAA RATING: R; profanity, sexual situations, brief drug abuse

RUNNING TIME: 112 min.

DIRECTOR: Vincent Gallo

CAST: Vincent Gallo, Chloe Sevigny, Cheryl Tiegs, Elizabeth Blake

SYNOPSIS: A motorcycle racer (writer-director-editor Gallo) drives cross country to reunite with his lover (Sevigny). The scandal of the 2003 Cannes Film Festival, now trimmed by 26 minutes.

WHAT WE SAID: Persall gave the film a C. Film critic Roger Ebert had called it the worst film ever screened at Cannes. "The Brown Bunny isn't the worst film ever made - neither is Gigli, though both were victims of snowballing venom - but it's a challenging, vaguely satisfying work from a filmmaker too smart for his own good," Persall wrote.

MPAA RATING: NR, probably NC-17; one explicit oral sex scene, profanity, drug abuse, sexual situations, nudity

RUNNING TIME: 94 min.

[Last modified August 17, 2005, 12:59:10]