Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 01/19/2010 Run time: 109 minutes Rating: RA frantic and frequently amusing cocktail of Tarantino cool and Hong Kong bullet ballet, Joe (Narc) Carnahan’s Smokin’ Aces delivers some inspired moments of action and dark comedy in its dizzying-comic book plot about a rogue’s gallery of killers on the hunt for a mob informer. At the core of Carnahan’s bloody shaggy-dog tale is Buddy Israel (Jeremy Piven, offering a more desperate take on his standard hustler persona), a Vegas magician who’s turned informant against the mobsters who have treated him as their personal entertainment. Wishing to close Buddy’s overactive mouth permanently, the mob capo puts a bounty on the two-bit showman’s head, and a horde of hitmen descends on Buddy’s digs to claim the prize. The unholy crew of gunmen offer the movie’s most inspired (and outlandish) moments, with R&B singer Alicia Keys (as a cool, Foxy Brown-esque assassin), Nestor Carbonell (as a torture-minded sadist), Ben Affleck and Peter Berg (low-key bail bondsmen) and Chris Pine (the leader of a trio of semi-savage brothers) among the more memorable villains. Ryan Reynolds, Ray Liotta, and Andy Garcia represent the other side of the coin as FBI agents determined to get to Buddy before the legion of doom, and the clashes between both factions produce some eye-popping gunplay. If there’s any complaint to be made about Smokin’ Aces, it’s that the tone shifts between action-drama and hipster comedy feel forced (Carnahan struck a firmer balance between the two in his 1998 indie effort, Blood, Guts, Bullets and Octane), but the performances and shootout set pieces, as well as Carnahan’s hyperactive camera work, do much to make those transitions palatable. Eagle-eyed audience members will note the presence veteran scene stealers Curtis Armstrong (Ray), David Proval (The Sopranos), and Alex Rocco (The Godfather‘s Moe Green) in supporting roles. — Paul Gaita
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March 21, 2010
#1
This is one of the worse movies I’ve seen in my life, to the point of making me leave the theater after its first thirty or so boring minutes.
Anyone who’s able to watch it entirely, should be rewarded for being really patient.
March 21, 2010
#2
. . .To pass away the time while Easter dinner was still being prepared. Other than that, I never would’ve watched this movie. It seemed to be the end result of a copy/past job and it made no sense. I thought it was pretty awful and I couldn’t believe Ben Affleck would star in something like “Smokin’ Aces”. At least his character died off in the beginning. Alicia Keys is beautiful, but her acting was horrendous. She used the same expressionless face and the same flat, raspy, expressionless voice throughout the entire movie. She was as interesting as a piece of cardboard with a wig on top of it. Common did a little bit better and he should definetly consider a career in acting. Other than that, I wouldn’t recommend this movie to anyone unless they were really bored.
March 21, 2010
#3
Universal have yet again dropped the ball here. It’s all good and well releasing Smokin aces 2 in R and Unrated form, but how about the infinitely superior original? It suffered heavy cuts at the hands of the studio and the MPAA. Get with the programme Uni, this R rated edition is not worth the upgrade to HD unless you’re a slavish fan in need of sharper sound & image quality.
March 21, 2010
#4
I was really looking forward to watching this flick but as previous reviewers have pointed out, there are some bad discs out there. The first 3 times I popped it into my 360′s HD-DVD drive it failed to recognize the disc. By the 4th time I got as far as the Universal logo, then the disc locked up. The next day I decided to try one more time and actually got to the main menu… and then it locked up. Sent back to Amazon for a replacement after I was unable to get any adequate answers from Microsoft or Universal after a couple of days. Will update the review if I am able to get a good copy. My drive oddly enough was able to play the “Children of Men” HD-DVD so my guess is that there are just good and bad copies out there from Universal. An insert in the case says you may need to update your firmware to play this disc, but I could not find a more recent upgrade to the 360′s drive past Nov. 2006 (i.e. what was in my drive’s original packaging). I didn’t even bother trying the standard DVD side because well… what’s the point of getting an HD-DVD then?
March 21, 2010
#5
I have strongly mixed feelings about Smokin’ Aces. There is so much intense and unpredictable violence, I found it both mind-numbing and, at times, quite annoying. I had to frequently look away from the numerous brain splattering scenes because I find them disturbing – not cathartic, like most filmgoers do. This is a picture that relishes so much violent sudden death – there comes a point when you want to yell out to the filmmakers: “enough all ready!”
But aside from the rivers of blood, what I found most troubling about this movie is when two of the genuinely decent characters – one an FBI agent, the other a bounty hunter – commits cold blooded murder out of revenge. One with great sorrow, the other because he feels like a sucker. When the good guys commit murder the message to the audience is that murder for revenge’s sake is justifiable. Life is cheap. I find that quite troubling.
Also the ending of the movie makes absolutely no sense, which is never a good sign! Why would the FBI Agent essentially throw his life away? At least he’s a trained professional! Did it ever cross his mind to pick-up the phone and call someone in the Justice Department for help, like the Attorney General; or simply contact a large city newspaper, like the New York Times? His hopelessness is truly pathetic and ridiculous!
Is there anyone in this movie who is not absolutely crazy or foolhardy? What a commentary on American society!
The only reason I did not give this rather twisted movie 1-star is because, believe it, or not, there are a few genuinely hilarious scenes I found quite amusing. This is the direction I would love to see filmmakers take more often in the future! One can turn a profit on a movie without having to resort to rivers of blood!