Stuff that steals Sin City's style. A rant/musing.
 

Okay, this is kind of a rant, but more of a thing I've noticed.

So I'm watching the MTV Movie Awards (go ahead, flame me, I've watched it like, every year), and it's Jimmy Fallon and Terrance Howard announcing Mariah Carey. The camera pans left, and the whole picture goes black and white. There's a 50s theme big band type setup, playing one of the only old melodies these kids would know. You see Mariah Carey come through the curtain, and shes in color.

Now, tell me that isn't ripped off from Sin City.

I've noticed alot of other things that have ripped off of Sin City, but what are some that you've noticed?

Whenever a big movie plays, aren't things going to get ripped off from it? Just look at bullet time from The Matrix. That got very very lame. Seems every awards show/comedy decided they needed bullet time right after it was showed in The Matrix.

Yeah, that's true I guess. But it wasn't for a comedic factor, it was for her performance.

The whole bits of color in black and white effect has been done before. Just don't think a whole movie has been done like that before. It is not as orginal as it seems. I can't think of an example this second, but I know I've seen it done before.

sin city ripped it off of shindlers list :p
shindlers list had that little girl with the red dress in color... well her dress in color... only thing in the whole movie in color...

It just homage... the film is popular and MTV trades in popular. It's nothing to get your shorts in a bunch about... they are just tapping into what seems to be cool right now...

Just be thankful they weren't paying homage to something like Chariots of Fire... Mariah would have had to run onto the stage in slow motion to inspirational music.

Mariah Carey... mmmmm... Makes me want them to pay homage to Debbie Does Dallas.

Who said that if somebody uses a cool idea then it has to be retired?

Pleasantville used it long before Sin City, too.

Elton John used it in a music video before that...

...What video would that be?

um... it's an awards show. for movies. it exists to pay tribute to the movies of the year. this is just one way of doing that.

am i missing something?

Lets clear this up -- MTV does not do tributes. They do things to get higher ratings.

...and since when did those two things become mutually exclusive...

Oh! I see! When MTV does it isn't keepin' it real...


So if some guy did a tribute on his laptop at home and say three people (including his Mom) saw it, that would be cool. The fact that it is on MTV and seen by millions makes it lame...

You may have something there.


Keep it real baby....

That was the one I was thinking of, thank you.

Not always.
Yeah,you've got it. Somehow I don't see an MTV exec saying "You know, I really liked Movie X. Let's do a tribute this year!" It's more like "You know, our target audience really liked Movie X. I bet we could score a lot of viewer approval if we did a 'tribute' to it this year."

It's the movie awards. Therefore, they do takeoffs and style things on the current movies. Where's the frickin' mystery?

I was thinking the same thing :thumbsup:

they did it because sin city was a hot movie and they wanted to make it look like it on purpose

well i dont think sin city ripped it from any movies(pleasentville, shlindlers list)... it's a comic that was done in real time with real actors.

It's just a style... no one is ripping anyone off. That's like saying It's A Wonderful Life was ripping off Casablanca because they both use a narritive three act structure and use the same editing style... and were both shot in black and white.

Pleasantville, Schindler's List, Sin City are all exceedingly distinctive in their style but just happen to use elements of both Black and White and colour...


PS I can't remember the Elton John song but the video has him in colour in a black and white world. It was from the 80s or early 90s.

Wasn't it "Sad Songs"?


Let's not forget "Wizard of Oz" and before that "Ben Hur" ...

hell, I've ripped it off. Did a movie for school with a 40's mobster theme, and the DVD cover had my main character in black and white with a red tie, and that was the only bit of colour on the box.

I think I read Maddox saying something in his matrix reloaded review about how bullet time isn't cool anymore because it's in every Lebanese music video. So yeah, I'll let the Sin City ripoff slide this once, but I don't wanna see it in everything. I'm already seeing bank ads using the same effect (right after the movie came out). Let's not overuse it :P

Wizard of Oz didn't mix colour and black and white... segments were in B&W and others in colour. As for Ben Hur... wasn't it all in technicolour?

...and Sad Songs just might be the one.

The older Ben-Hur from 1925 was black and white with certain scenes in color.

The Sin City movie took the splashes of color in a black and white world from the comics, which took the look from many previous movies, several of which have been named here. Raging bull is another. It was bing done in other more subtle ways long before the technology existed to do it digitally. The woman in a red dress at a black and white ball is the same idea, but done more subtlely.

There are turn of the century movies that used a mixture of color and black and white for effect. Scenes from Intolerance IIRC, were tinted for emotional effect some 90 years ago. I love Sin City, I've seen it twice. But nothing in it is original or new, just older ideas done very well and with panache, style, and energy.

Gilda

They let her out of the mental institution? WOW! :lol: