[School of Movies 2026] Robert Rodriguez reaches his masterpiece. This film is truly magnificent as an adaptation of cinema to the aesthetics and hallmarks of this particular pitch black graphic novel series. It seems like every element combined in swift, smooth and effortlessly striking fashion as this sleazy, stark crime opera anthology drew on every skill Robert had learned over the 90s and somehow focused all of his haphazard digital work into one infinitely sharp point. The flourishes of colour and thundering automobiles hypnotising us like deer in the darkness of a snowy woodland road. It was also blessed with an astonishing cast; Mickey Rourke making a comeback that would lead him to The Wrestler (2008), Bruce Willis in one of his last great performances, Clive Owen at his snarling hungriest, Rosario Dawson setting the screen on fire, Benicio Del Toro as a powder-keg of entitled misogyny, Michael Clarke Duncan delivering a captivating Terminator-Bear hybrid, Rutger Hauer, Powers Booth and Nick Stahl as the most detestable richly-connected psychopath villains imaginable, and even little Elijah Wood chilling our blood by playing a sprightly cannibal who neither talks nor blinks. Bringing in Frank Miller himself and crediting him as co-director while humbly taking the mantle of the man who ‘Shoots and Cuts’, Robert was able to make this feel extraordinary in a way its imitators, including Zack Snyder's 300 (2006) and Watchmen (2009), Frank Miller's own The Spirit (2008) and even Sin City 2: A Dame to Kill For (2014) could not possibly match. And folks supporting us for five bucks on our Patreon bonus feed can, this coming weekend hear all about how that second film imploded.