The Spirit - C-

On DVD and Blu-ray

After Frank Miller co-directed the star-filled Sin City with the consistently mediocre Robert Rodriguez, somebody decided to hand him the reigns to the Batman-esque comic book The Spirit. But after viewing The Spirit, Rodriguez certainly got something right in that earlier film, not only by attracting the likes of Bruce Willis, Carla Gugino, Mickey Rourke, Jessica Alba, Clive Owen, and Rosario Dawson, but also pulling out acceptable performances from each (especially Ms. Alba’s bare midriff). In The Spirit, the biggest stars are bad guy Samuel L. Jackson (whose hamminess has finally reached the breaking point) and bad girl Scarlett Johansson (who gives her career-worst performance in a “career” full of dull and bad ones) . . .

Jackson is The Octopus and Johansson is his first henchwoman. He’s into immortality and she’s into cloning. After a botched robbery where The Octopus and femme fatale Sand Saref (Eva Mendes) get the suitcase that the other one wanted, they try to set up a switch. Meanwhile, The Spirit (Gabriel Macht?!?) tries to stop The Octopus and mend relations with childhood friend Saref. The visuals are identical to Sin City and the story hits every comic book cliché possible, taking pieces of Dick Tracy, Batman, Spiderman, and Superman. The acting is over-the-top by everyone, obviously a stylistic choice by Miller - who must be going for camp for some unknown target audience I don’t belong to. I don’t know if I’ll be able to watch Jackson’s superb performances in Jungle Fever and Pulp Fiction the same way again after watching this disaster. C-

Rated PG-13 for mindless, soul-crushing comic book violence and Mendes's butt.