Sin City: A Dame to Kill For

Unlikely as it may have seemed, 2014 has emerged as the year where, among other things, Eva Green proved to be the best part of a rock-dumb green screen sequel film. First there was her turn in 300: Rise of an Empire, and now comes Sin City: A Dame to Kill For. She is the eponymous “dame,” Ava Lord, a character so rigidly crafted to the femme fatale archetype as to be a cartoon. Of course, that goes for all the characters in this series, as they are portrayed both in these films and in the comic book series on which they are based. The cast also overflows with corrupt politicians, brassy whores, and down-on-their-luck antiheroes suffering apparent vocal fry, with a towering black manservant and a mute Asian assassin thrown in for good measure. Even moreso than the original movie, A Dame to Kill For is extraordinarily broad. It’s absolutely hilarious, and only on purpose perhaps a quarter of the time.