From time to time, I have guest reviewers do the honors. This one is by my husband, Miles Doppler, because he is such a Sin City fan. It also helps that I happen to agree with his assessment.

The story goes that when director Robert Rodriguez first met Sin City author and artist Frank Miller, he said “I don’t want to make a movie out of your comic – I want to make a comic out of your movie…” And an alliance was formed.

True to his vision, Rodriguez delivered the astonishing Sin City in 2005, and is now back with his follow-up novel/film. In the interim, he’s sharpened his computer skills, amped his makeup Q and blown up most every other CGI attribute to deliver a socko vision of desperate low-lifes in a town without pity — in 3D no less — that blasts out with impossible detail from Frame 1.

Back to the comic concept, this film is a living, breathing love song to Miller’s art. It’s the Hogwarts version, with each cell coming to life and popping out as you turn the page. 3D smacks you with all the beauty, grit and sexuality you could ask for in a public setting. I loved it for that. There’s such meticulous planning and execution, it’s a thesis on a personal style that sets the bar.

It’s presented in razor black and white, seared with touches of brilliant colors relegated only to that dazzling blue dress, those pumped, pouting lips, that trickle of blood.

The other wonder is the dialog. As cheesy as it gets, it’s purposely, homagingly, comically absurd, evoking appreciative laughs. It’s every noir film’s tag line parading beneath the moaning Playboy-quality nude shots of Ava Green, who no doubt, was a Hollywood dame ready to kill for the role. And man, does she deliver.

Yes, it’s all too, too… a half hour too long, the story keeps ending then coughing back to “life” again, and the mood is relentlessly morose. But this is such a guy and geek film — brooding violence, car chases and tobacco smoke-choked encounters. The sex is cheap and sleazy, the cheese and corn is a relentless soufflé, the graphics are spectacularly unreal and gorgeously rendered. The ultimate effect is you know you’ve been stuffed silly, but who gives a damn – it’s one of those times when everything goes to hell but it’s worth the overwhelming decadence. —Miles Doppler

Rated R

102 Minutes