Sin City

A reader writes:

Dear Jimmy,

This has been a rough day in a rough week and the news from the Vatican has me totally bummed out. What to do? I had a spare moment and thought that a little distraction would help. I like Bruce Willis. I like Tarantino. I decided to see Sin City.

This movie is one of the worst things to see with the eyes. It is very anti-establishment and has some real over-the-top anti-Catholic moments in it as well. It sickens me that in this time of crisis, I cannot go to a simple movie without being blasted by the hatred of some adolescent mind.

Anywho, my advice: do not see this fifty-pound monkey that sits on your head relentlessly banging it … I mean, movie.

Sin Cerely,
Namewithheld

A thought: I don’t know what movies are playing right now, but one can still see movies that aren’t Evil. May I suggest The Incredibles (just out on DVD)? It’s InconceivableIncredible!

Thanks for the warning about fifty-pound monkeysmovies!

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

7 thoughts on “Sin City”

  1. Ahem. 😉
    There ARE some, er, decent films in theaters at the moment, including
    Family films:
    * Millions
    * Robots
    * Because of Winn-Dixie
    Date movies:
    * Bride and Prejudice
    Challenging, morally rich films:
    * Born into Brothels
    * The Passion Recut
    though of course there are always more on DVD and video.
    I deliberately passed on reviewing Sin City this weekend, although my colleague Peter Chattaway of ChristianityToday.com reviewed it. You might also like the review of my friend Lawrence Toppman of the Charlotte Observer.

  2. I got The Incredibles DVD.
    Then I wanted to get my parents to watch it because in spite of being badged by my sister and me, they didn’t while it was in the theaters. 0:)
    So I was taking it out Friday night to put somewhere, so we could watch it this weekend, and my father said, “You want to watch it now?”
    They think it’s a great movie.

  3. The Incredibles DVD is worth having just for the four-minute short Jack-Jack Attack. It was hysterical.

  4. I saw Sin City last night. Even if you’re a Tarantino fan, the level of violence gets pretty ridiculous. It pretty much redefines “graphic.”

  5. The reviewer for my local paper, the Fresno Bee, reviewed Sin City and gave it an “A,” which is virtually never given. On the strength of the review and the fact that I’m a science fiction/fantasy/comic book fan, I went to see the movie on its opening day.
    I was shocked – actually I was revolted – by the level of graphic violence in the movie. There were decapitations, maimings, impalements and things I don’t even want to mention. I don’t think I’m a shrinking violet on these kinds of things, but it may have been worse than Kill Bill.
    Oh, and by the way, the movie reviewer who gave “Sin City” an “A” dwelled on what he perceived as the excessive violence in the Passion of the Christ.

  6. What really got me about the movie was the part about the clergy being serviced by the local gang of prostitutes and the fact that the cardinal (a thinly disguised Cardinal Ratzinger — Sin City is obviously New York/New Jersey and not Las Vegas) would eat them (the prostitutes). The stigma of cannibalism has been with the Church since the very beginning and this movie reveled in its portrayal of a hypocritical and Church megalomaniac.
    Another thing that bugged me about the movie was the fact that the stronger a character’s association with the image of the cross, the more likely they were to be evil, deranged, and/or traitorous. The only Bible-readers in the movie are the rapist/cannibals.
    Other religions are slighted too. The character Miho used swastika shuriken to slice brains in half. I wonder how the Buddhist community feels about this vile perversion of their religious symbolism…
    The movie is such an unrelenting stream of heavy-handed adolescent thought that the Bruce Willis character takes THE ONLY WAY OUT of this stinkball film. I half-wished he would have turned his revolver on my head first…

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