Graphic novel lunges for the jugular

NINE years after Sin City assaulted our senses with its stylised look (high-contrast black-and-white punctuated by splashes of colour) and eye-popping violence based on Frank Miller's graphic novel series, the square-jawed killers and drop-dead gorgeous dames that populated the original are back for more. Sin City: A Dame to Kill For introduces a few new faces and keeps several old ones, weaving four parallel storylines into a single narrative and switching back and forth among them until someone is beaten to a bloody pulp or comes to an inglorious end.

Some things never change: the dialogue is deliciously hard-boiled and the broads are beautiful health hazards.

Assorted creeps, whores and anti-heroes slide in and out of the shadows and the fringes of society. Once again, co-directors Miller and Robert Rodriguez go straight for the jugular, drenching every other scene in red - as in blood red - the colour of choice (if there is any colour at all, that is).