Sin City (2005)
Crime, Thriller • 2h 4m
Directors: Robert Rodriguez & Frank Miller
Cast: Bruce Willis, Jessica Alba, Clive Owen, Mickey Rourke, Rutger Hauer, Benicio del Toro, Alexis Bledel, Michael Madsen, Powers Boothe, Nick Stahl, Devon Aoki, Michael Clarke Duncan, Rosario Dawson, Carla Gugino, Josh Hartnett, Jaime King, Brittany Murphy, Elijah Wood, Jude Ciccolella, Jeff 'JJ' Dashnaw, Jesse De Luna, Jason Douglas, Tommy Flanagan, Rick Gomez, David H. Hickey, Greg Ingram, Nicky Katt, Helen Kirk, John McLeod, Lisa Marie Newmyer, Tommy Nix, Nick Offerman, Marco Perella, Randal Reeder, Jeff Schwan, Marley Shelton, Frank Miller, Korey Simeone, Paul T. Taylor, Rico Torres, Makenzie Vega, Arie Verveen, Patricia Vonne, Ethan Maniquis, Ken Thomas, Chris Warner, Ethan Rains, Cara D. Briggs, Christina Frankenfield, Evelyn Hurley, Jason McDonald, Clark Middleton, Charissa Allen, Jessica Hale, Samantha Inoue-Harte, Ashley Moore, Amanda Phillips, Emmy Robbin, Lauren-Elaine Powell, Kelley Robins Hicks, Penny Vital, Monika Spruch, Katherine Willis, Charles Charpiot, Babs George, Ron Hayden, Scott Teeters, Lucina Paquet, Sam Ray, Ryan Rutledge, Shaun Wainwright-Branigan, J.D. Young, David Alex Ruiz, Danny Wynands, Texas Presley, Robert Rodriguez
About the film
Welcome to Sin City. This town beckons to the tough, the corrupt, the brokenhearted. Some call it dark… Hard-boiled. Then there are those who call it home — Crooked cops, sexy dames, desperate vigilantes. Some are seeking revenge, others lust after redemption, and then there are those hoping for a little of both. A universe of unlikely and reluctant heroes still trying to do the right thing in a city that refuses to care.
- Alternative Titles
- Frank Miller's Sin City, Sin City - Recut, Extended
2D: Spain Emon Blu-ray
3D: US Lionsgate, Germany StudioCanal, or Netherlands Entertainment One 3D Blu-ray?
Director: Robert Rodriguez
Director: Quentin Tarantino
2025 Taiwan Deltamac 4K Blu-ray
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
2025 Taiwan Deltamac 4K Blu-ray > US Paramount 4K Blu-ray (Taiwan 4K Blu-ray is not low passed as the US 4K Blu-ray and has better grain and fine detail retention)
Director: Godfrey Reggio
International Cut: France StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray
(forced, but not hardcoded France subs, no English subtitles)
2023 Criterion 4K Blu-ray (meh compression) / Curzon 4K Blu-ray (visible chroma noise)
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
2023 Criterion 4K Blu-ray (bad compression) / Curzon 4K Blu-ray (visible chroma noise and meh compression)
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
More Crime on Blu-ray
Director: Robert Altman
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Cinematrographe's HDR grading is overcooked, which is a known VinSyn tendency. Additionally, their booklet mis-credits the encode to FiM.
YMMV, but for some, the included BD encoded by Marcus Johnson—ironically may make for a more pleasing experience.
4K restoration of the original 3D left eye and right eye camera negatives
Director: John Woo
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Arrow has a different grade and a better encode than the Shout! Factory, though the difference in either is not major. Imprint release, which leaves Shout! Factory's master and subtitles as is, is encoded by FiM. https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=24473097&postcount=56
Original mix: Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray
Alternate mix: Scanbox Nordic PAL DVD
Surround remix: HK Video France 4K Blu-ray (5.0)
Original mix: Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray (similar to Criterion LaserDisc, but less distorted)
Alternate mix: Scanbox Nordic PAL DVD
Surround remix: HK Video France 4K Blu-ray (5.0)
Arrow used the alternate mix, but with extra filtering and lowered dynamic range. The alternate mix has much better fidelity.
Imprint presumably used the Shout! Factory original mix and left it as is, though no official confirmation.
Director: Richard Brooks
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Arrow 4K Blu-ray > Criterion 4K Blu-ray > Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray
1991 Orion LaserDisc vs 2024 Arrow 4K Blu-ray
Director: William Dieterle
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
The 4K discs in both Criterion and Imprint sets are FiM encodes, but low-passed, Imprint minimally less so. Unfortunately, unlike with The Killing, Kino does not hold up at all, the grain is much rougher and the compression visibly struggles making for a much less pleasant watch, even if select stills look better.
All discs use the same source transfer. Criterion cleaned up some hums and hiss, but lost a little bit of high-end detail. Unlike The Killing, the difference's relatively mino.
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
The 4K discs in both Criterion and Imprint sets are FiM encodes, but low-passed. The compression is better, but some of the grain is lost. Difference is pronounced in screen caps, but not likely to be noticed during playback, without a reference to compare it to. Comparisons
All discs use the same source transfer. It's not of the highest quality, and it includes some slight distortion, looping, clicks, pops, and hum. Criterion cleaned it up for their release, but unfortunately also lost a lot of fidelity in the process.
MGM NTSC DVD doesn't seem to have some of the more prominent distortion and has slightly different EQ but is otherwise the same.
Director: Karel Reisz
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Cinematographe is mis-credited to be an FiM encode. It isn't. Neither the encode nor the color grading are entirely satisfactory.
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Every recommendation follows the same method — how these calls are made.