SLICK, stylish and ultra violent, Sin City has ''cult classic'' written all over it.

This film looks fantastic, shot entirely in ethereal black and white with splashes of bloody colour, it would seem it has all the ingredients to be this year's Kill Bill.

Ruled by underworld criminals and PVC-clad prostitutes, Sin City is not a nice place to live (horny geek boys will obviously disagree).

It tells three entirely separate tales of life in the depraved city, which disappointingly did not cleverly interlink, any liaisons between characters seemed purely coincidental.

The cast list reads like a Who's Who of Hollywood with excellent turns from Bruce Willis, Elijah Wood, Benicio Del Toro and a barely recognisable Mickey Rourke.

However, I also felt some of the star castings - namely Brittany Murphy and Josh Hartnett - were a bit pointless.

Sin City certainly won't appeal to the masses, mainly because of its gung-ho attitude to sex and violence, catapulting it further to cult classic status.

But while Kill Bill was witty and clever as well as ultra slick, I felt this was a case of style over substance.

EB