I was recently considering giving Sin City another watch when the Blu-ray arrived on my doorstep just a few days before its release date. While I was interested in watching the film again, I wasn’t necessarily interested in reviewing this massive set of special features all over again. Luckily, the majority of the features on this disc were available on the Recut and Extended Edition, which was released on DVD in December of 2005 and of which I reviewed right here. So, I’ll give you the skinny on the new stuff and a taste of the old, but for the complete run down of the prior features check out the previous DVD review.
First off, disc one comes with the feature film in its theatrical version and the two audio commentaries and Austin screening track are also available. The first commentary track is with co-directors Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller (writer of the “Sin City” graphic novels). The second is Rodriguez primarily on his own, but Quentin Tarantino comes in briefly as well as Bruce Willis who comes on for “That Yellow Bastard†and speaks about how he got involved, his love of film noir and so forth.
The Blu-ray exclusive feature on the first disc is called Cine-Explore and it is an excellent example of what Blu-ray adds to supplementary material with a fantastic presentation. As you watch the theatrical cut of the film the images bounce between the movie, green screen, storyboards and occasionally panels them all out altogether, highlighting the storyboard that matches up with the scene that is playing with others prepped to follow. The only problem is you have to listen to the audio commentary with Rodriguez and Miller. I have a feeling the feature may be almost just as entertaining, if not more, than watching the film itself, which means the fact you can’t change the audio source pretty much blows.
The second disc is where you will find the extended and recut versions of the film, one new Blu-ray feature as well as most of the features from the DVD edition. There are, however, a couple of features that didn’t make the Blu-ray version, including the interactive timeline feature called “Sin-Chroni-City Interactive” and “Casting the Film”. I can’t say the loss of these two features really matters, but it’s strange they would choose not to include something when there is so much space available on these discs.
However, the features you do get include effects, costumes and props featurettes. A look at the inclusion of Quentin Tarantino and how Rodriguez was able to get Frank Miller aboard. The Blu-ray exclusive feature on disc two was a bit of a dud since it is one of those interactive DVD-ROM style games where you have to move the cursor when it tells you to as it plays the story of Marv (Mickey Rourke’s character) out on the screen. I bumbled around with it for a second, but couldn’t find the exit button fast enough.
The highlight, of course, of this release is having what amounts to a gorgeous black-and-white film with splashes of color in high-definition. The film itself looks fantastic and the DTS audio track makes it all that much better. I also love the idea of having the film broken up into the four individual stories on the second disc. Just as was on the DVD edition, you get “Customer Is Always Right,” “The Hard Goodbye,” “Big Fat Kill” and “That Yellow Bastard” split into four short films all with additional footage added back in. The new versions collectively include approximately 23 minutes of new footage.
Dimension Home Video didn’t skimp on this release and the Cine-Explore is a feature any fan of this film needs to check out. Fans of graphic novels and those interested in Robert Rodriguez’s film school features, of which there is one on this release, will love to see the green screen work side-by-side with a panel from the graphic novel as well as the finished product. If anything other than HD were the reason to buy Blu-ray, its features such as this that make it all worthwhile.
