As you probably know by now, "Sin City" is made up of three black-and-white, film noir-like stories translated from the pages of Frank Miller's graphic novel to the silver screen. So, one thing cannot be denied -- it certainly looks cool.

The plot? There are three, actually. One which follows Marv (Mickey Rourke) down a bloody road to revenge after the one girl who ever showed him affection, a prostitute named Goldie (Jaime King), is murdered.

This is some of the most entertaining, artistic, humorously twisted filmmaking these eyes have seen in quite some time. Rourke is perfect, as is King (and her boobs). Speaking of boobs, Carla Gugino, who also shows up for this story, has to be noted as the hottest babe on the planet, at least in black and white. Not a dull moment. Hell, even Elijah Wood is great in this scenario, probably because he doesn't speak. It's really worth seeing, just try and manage to bare the lame-ass intro with Josh Hartnett and Marley Shelton, you'll only think you're in some perfume commercial starring Nicole Kidman for a couple minutes.

As for the other two stories, well, again, they certainly do look cool. And hey, they have their moments. However, Clive Owen and Bruce Willis, although Willis does outman Clive this round, just don't live up to Rourke's presence when it comes to the brooding "and the dame walked in the room"-style narration that keeps any of these male leads from having any real true character of their own. They're all violent phuckers who don't take shit from anyone, and the girls are the same unless they're damsels in distress. While it may not be part of the graphic novel, it would've been nice to see one story narrated by a badass chick in there.

Don't wanna spoil any of the fun, it is worth seeing, but (yet again) be prepared to be built up with the first story and then let down with the next two. A severed head is like an ice cream cone. The first one's great. The second one's good. The third one just makes you wonder why the hell you ate it.

(three bongs -- four if you're baked -- five if you're baked, fourteen years old, and sneaking into the theater)