Sin City (2005)

If you want to see a comic's actual look on screen, start here. Robert Rodriguez's take on Frank Miller's hardboiled noir is remarkably faithful, using stark black-and-white photography and heavy prosthetics to turn Miller's grotesque goons and tough dames into living ink. It works as an anthology, with Mickey Rourke, Clive Owen and Bruce Willis each carrying a strand, so it rewards dipping in as much as a single sitting. The trade-off is that it copies the books' brutality and their leering view of women too, so this is one for readers who already like Miller's pulp.