Frank Miller’s series of black-and-white neonoir comics hits the screen in a stylish explosion of sadistic violence, shot in crisp black and white but with novel use of spot color. Director Robert Rodriguez used the comics as storyboards and enlisted Miller as codirector, and their vision of a late 40s urban hellhole, with dramatic angles and constant voice-over, is remarkably faithful to the original idiom—some scenes are even rendered in reverse silhouette, with white bodies moving against black backgrounds. The story has been stitched together from several of the books, which makes for a shapeless and nihilistic succession of superviolent set pieces. But the A-list of hard-boiled actors—Bruce Willis, Clive Owen, Benicio Del Toro, Michael Clarke Duncan, Michael Madsen, and Mickey Rourke wearing a hatchet-face prosthesis—and Rodriguez’s evident delight in the form make this a worthwhile piece of eye candy. R, 126 min.