Smokin' Aces

Here we are folks. The real start of the year for films has finally begun. Director and screenwriter Joe Carnahan's shoot 'em up adrenaline flick, 'Smokin' Aces' starts it all. With its intriguing cast and premise it looked to be something to talk about. Although it has a few decent qualities, there's still something missing. Five time entertainer of the year Buddy "Aces" Israel, played by Jeremy Piven, has gotten himself into quite a pickle. Associating himself with the crime leaders of the underworld in Las Vegas he became delusional. He started believing he himself was one of them. After many failed schemes Aces decides the only way to get himself out of the mess he's created is to rat out his associates to the FBI. In turn, mob boss Primo Sparazza puts a bounty on Aces. One million dollars to be exact. Not only does he want him dead though, he wants his heart too. Once word of the bounty spreads, hit men (and women) from all over make their way to Aces' Lake Tahoe hideout hoping to get to him first and get their hands on the one million dollars. At the beginning, everything in 'Aces' is a bit of jumbled mess. Back to back flashback narratives explaining everything up until the present do not let up and may cause some viewers to stop and think twice about what was just said. The same thing happens near the end and comes off the same way. This is a film that can't be taken seriously, and there's just far too much storyline here. Carnahan tried a little too hard to make it more clever than it needed to be, which takes it down a few notches. Obviously though, we all know what everyone is going to see this film for; the action scenes. They range from good to excellent with none of them being amazing. Some of them are a little too well planned and executed to be seen as believable, but that's not an issue really. They're all pretty pleasing, and that'll be good enough for most people. What really makes everything all go together, and is the actual glue of the film are the characters. They're each interesting, entertaining, & fun. We have a torture fiend, chainsaw wielding brothers, a pair of sniper lesbians, & a master of disguise. Most appealing would be Alicia Keys'. In her acting debut, she demonstrates just the right amount of cool and sexy melded together to make her character Georgia Sykes the vixen sniper in one word, awesome. Also just as surprising and also a relief was Affleck didn't, I repeat didn't ruin the film. Now I'm not saying he was good either. Just go and see the film and you'll see what I mean… Now with all that said, there remains to be something missing here. I'm not going to drag out with a couple of jokes what it is either. Plain and simple, it's Tarantino. 'Smokin' Aces' looks like it was made from some Quentin Tarantino movie kit. Apparently, Carnahan didn't follow the directions correctly. Had Tarantino been the director, I think it could've been great. He would have added that little something that only he can that made 'Reservoir Dogs' and 'From Dusk Till Dawn' what they were. At least 'Grindhouse' will be here in a couple of months. Still, if you're looking for some high energy fun, 'Smokin' Aces' is where it's at.

If you haven't seen this film id better point out (which many people have missed in their reviews or ignored) is that this film is a comedy, it is not in any way meant to be taken seriously. With that in mind it is a thoroughly entertaining movie. There is a plot about around 5 different flavors of assassins and hit men competing for a $1m contract on an FBI informer Buddy "Aces" Israel, a sure recipe for carnage. There is a deeper plot than that but i wont go into detail as it will spoil the overall plot as there is a very major twist. There are a number of big names in this film so the acting is superb and there are many scenes which left me both laughing and intrigued. Again i must stress that if you go into this film expecting anything other than a fun, exhilarating action movie not to be taken seriously then you will miss the whole point as many other reviewers have, this is definitely a comedy. A great, fun film for the lads.

6.6 (The collective rating at the time of this writing) is pretty accurate. I watched this on Netflix (via Xbox Live) a while ago and haven't mustered up enough words to give this a sound review. So this will be one of my shorter ones. Or at least one of my least detailed, on par with some of my much earlier reviews. I remember a while ago, seeing the previews of this and knowing right off the bat that it was my type of movie. Mindless, violent, and awesome. NUMEROUS mercenaries and assassins are sent towards one guy for being a mob mole. A brilliant concept where they could have easily just made it a mindless slaughter-fest. I went in expecting that, and that's exactly what I got. What I DIDN'T expect is an entire back storyline detailing the history of facial disguises and how much of an important part it plays throughout the entire story - even though it's in the background and not revealed until the very end. So it started as a mindless "ten versus one" assassination but ended as a near-intellectual thriller. I was, as my summary tagline thing states, "Thoroughly impressed". I know I gave it a 7 but I honestly cannot think of any gripes, and the ones I do are way too minor and end up having a balancing factor. For example, the movie doesn't seem to want us to be sympathetic with "Aces". The balancing act? It later reveals that you're really not supposed to be. And that's pretty much the rest of the cast too. They act well, but you don't really give a damn about any of them; BUT THAT'S OKAY. Once again, you don't really HAVE to. So, I suppose I gave it a 7 (as opposed to 8 or 9, I almost never give out 10's) because it's raunchy and mindless and it's not really any kind of instant classic. Either way, it's worth seeing. Definitely. I'm glad I did.

It's said that if you want to make a great film then keep the premise simple and SMOKIN' ACES has a relatively simple premise of the mob putting a million dollar contract on potential star witness Buddy " Aces " Israel and rival gangs of hit men trying to eliminate both Aces and each other to get their hands on the money . I'm sure we all agree that this is a fairly simple and effective idea for a film . Alas what can often happen is that a writer or a producer can throw a massive spanner in the works by making everything too over complicated This is certainly the problem with this movie . It confuses the audience as to where it's going , has totally ill thought out plotting and totally underdeveloped characters . There's too many characters which means we spend the first twenty minutes of SMOKIN' ACES being introduced to them in a very lazy manner with captions . THE DEPARTED has perhaps too many characters but at no point do we see captions saying " Mob rat " or " FBI informer or " Undercover cop " letting the audience know who these characters are , probably because it's revealed in the narrative what their function is , as SMOKIN' ACES continues you start to realise that there's no cohesive story save for the central premise . What makes it so annoying is that many of the characters are written out of the film between 30 and 60 minutes of its running leaving the audience pondering why they were included in the first place . One character seems to be merely included to set up a " hilarious " scene with a hyperactive kid at some point in the movie . The more SMOKIN' ACES continues the more you realise what an incohesive mess the screenplay is Writer / director Joe Carnahan is more interested in incident rather than narrative which while not exactly making him an auteur could be forgiven if the incidents were well done but they're not and Carnahan seems to suffer amnesia . For example we're told about an international hit-man who is so ruthless he bites off his own fingertips in order to stop himself being identified . Do you get it ? Fingerprints can get you identified by law enforcement agencies and a good hit-man will do absolutely anything to stop themselves being identified or linked to their crimes by the law . Strange that a couple of scenes later we see possibly he world's greatest hired killer carrying out a hit where he leaves a wheelchair , mask , and weapons at the scene of the crime . I'f he's such a great assassin then why would he leave all that forensic evidence lying about ? If the screenplay owes a lot to Tarantino then the directing owes a lot to Guy Ritchie . We see lots of camera tricks , freeze frame etc but at least Ritchie is able to make a consistent film with a complicated plot . Like the screenplay the directing is often an uneven mess and can be summed in the last ten minutes which has an entirely different mood to the rest of the film . And don't be fooled that this may be a good film to rent due to the " big name " cast . Andy Garcia and Ray Liotta haven't had a big hit for years and SMOKIN' ACES ensures they'll be stuck in straight to DVD obscurity for a lot longer yet . SMOKIN ACES also heralds the death knell of Ben Affleck as an actor since he shows us what he does worst - Playing tough blue collar Irish Americans . I'm not sure how his directing career will go but anything that keeps him away from being in front of a camera will be a blessing . And I doubt if even he could direct a film as dire as SMOKIN' ACES

The movies that are always the most difficult to review are the ones that are not bad, but that still has something missing to them. "Smokin' Aces" is definitely like that. While it's not a bad movie, it's still far from as good as it could have been. I think the movie started out pretty well. It's got an almost "Lock Stock"-like quality to it where it presents all the main characters in different sequences. After that you feel the stage is set and the guns loaded. Unfortunately then you get the first dip in pace, and the movie never really recovers. Sure, you get a few laughs and some pretty well-done action scenes. But the pace really never picks up and lives up to the promise of the beginnings. It's difficult for me to put my finger on why i didn't really like this movie. Like i said before it's not bad and it was fairly entertaining. Perhaps my expectations were wrong? I expected something more fast-paced and hysterical, while this is a lot more sombre in pace. The good points are the actors, not that they're great but most of them are pretty good in their parts and many of them are quite funny. Also the action scenes are pretty well done. The negative parts is that i would have liked more action, a quicker pace and a lot less bewildering ending (without giving anything away). I think most people who like action movies might like this one. It works pretty well, although there are quite a lot of things to improve. I give it a 6/10.

Here we have Joe Carnaghan the writer/director of Narc? They say that human cloning has not yet taken place but this film may be the proof we were looking for. This just can't be the same Joe Carnaghan can it. He must be a doppelganger who has no idea about writing, direction and tension. There hasn't been such a jumbled mess on the screen since Revolver and unfortunately both Ritchie and Carnaghan have proved that too many characters doesn't help! However these actors are struggling with a garbled plot which has a twist at the end (two in fact) which were so see through that they were obvious from the beginning. Possibly the way the actors laboured over the "heart" line and following this the flashback story which was levered in for one reason and one reason only and therefore (although stylishly shot) must be relevant to the main plot. Performances are not bad given all these things but none of the characters are particularly likable for any reason. People die, you're not bothered. People predictably revive to do one last thing, you don't care. It's bloody, not gory, if you like that thing - which I have to say I don't mind - but I was so non plussed. I think you can always get some positives out of a film and the score wasn't bad at all and some scenes were passable. But did anyone find the karate kid just annoying. The people in the row behind me certainly did and I have to say I was in complete agreement!

This movie should get high marks for its style, but everything about its style that is likable, was ripped off from Guy Ritchie. The plot is sooo out there, that I can only imagine that the writer, director... producers and pretty much every studio exec was doing more blow than the characters in the film. I got the distinct feeling that the ending was done in re-shoots. There are only two main characters in the entire ending. And the ending is basically Andy Garcia reading you the reveal, as one gigantic paragraph. Something tells me this was not the original ending. At its best, the movie is a psychedelic, post-modernist romp through the crime genre. All the usual wash-outs and degenerates from the Mickey Spillane novels are here, but they have a 21st century spin to them. High high marks for Jason Bateman. His cameo appearance is almost worth the price of admission. The violent scenes are pretty much the best part of the film, and some of them are genuinely tense. But they are filled with glaring holes. Time and again, cops and security guards fail to follow basic precautions and wind up getting killed for it. Alicia Keys and Ryan Reynolds are miscast. Andy Garcia! Holy cow, what does he call that accent? Southern/Boston. Most of the pivotal events of the film are based around happenstance and freak luck. Without getting into the details, the ending is unbelievably hack and unimaginative. Put it this way, the emotional core of the story is based around a character that we never meet, except in flashbacks. And the inciting incident of the film (the hit being put on Israel) appears to have been a giant misunderstanding. (the guy said they wanted "Israel's heart". They construed that to mean they wanted him dead. But who put the million dollars in a swiss bank account and told every hit man in the Western Hemisphere that they could have it for killing him? Makes no sense) What a rip off!! High Points: 1) Jason Bateman (is AMAZING, in fact I swear that when he is slapping high-fives in the hotel room, Ben Affleck is struggling to keep a straight face.) 2) The Neo-Nazi characters (even though it felt as though they had been lifted from Big Lebowski and The Road Warrior). Their malevolence is so gleeful that it's contagious. 3) Jeremy Piven's coked-out, paranoid Israel. If there is a shred of human emotional core to this film, this is it. He nails the character, both megalomaniacal and insecure. As his situation becomes increasingly desperate, he sinks further and further into self-delusion. The camera trains on his eyes and Piven somehow builds a universe of frailty inside. It's wonderful. Low Points: 1) Andy Freakin' Garcia (yeesh!). Speaking of a universe of self-delusion. Watching an actor slip in and out of an accent is like listening to a guitarist play out-of-tune. But it is clear that Andy Garcia is utterly convinced of his own prowess. Sad. 2) Guy Ritchie rip-offs everywhere 3) Movie begins and ends with tons of back story given in paragraph form. Always a bad sign. 4) The sense of time is extremely distorted (I swear the skinheads were riding the elevator up to the penthouse for twenty minutes) 5) The cops and security guards in this movie are only one step above Keystone Cops. Bumbling idiots who fall for the flimsiest deceits. 6) There are at least five characters who take a ton of bullets, and somehow live through it. And when I say a ton of bullets, I'm talk ten to twenty at point blank range. One is difficult to believe, but it happens over and over again. 7) Everything about Alicia Keys' exit from the building is contrived and impossible to believe. 8) The writer and director seem to treat story like style and style like story. The story behind this movie is confusing at best and ridiculous and contrived at worst and serves only as a silly excuse to get Nazis and Lesbians and coke-heads and cross-dressers together for an orgy of violence and cool dialog.

There was a fair amount of comedy, thrill, and action. Each element was delivered at the right moment. The premise of the movie is not too complex. The movie provides enough background information in order for you to enjoy the movie. You have to buy in to the contrivance that multiple people are going to try to kill one man on the top floor of a casino. If you get pass that, you will have a really good time. Character performances were great. It has an amazing cast. Wonderful performances are given to Ryan Reynolds in a serious role and Jeremey Piven. OVERALL...The story was good. This movie also had appealing eye-candy. You will get excited about this movie.

I regret wasting my time watching this. Overall, this is a rather violent incomprehensible mess of a film. The numerous famous cameos and the star-packed cast do nothing here. Once you're done watching this you 'll know that you really could have spend your time in a better way. 2/10. Unnecessary.

Ray Ray Ray....did 'Revolver' teach you nothing?? For a man who was once in a Scorsese movie, its hard to imagine he'd end up like this....sunk to depths of the lowest degree. Well hopefully the reviews this film will no doubt receive will teach Mr. Liotta a thing or two about 'money over credibility', because this film is enough to suffocate anyone's career. (And Affleck should be ashamed of himself... wasn't 'Gigli' enough of a lesson!!!READ the Scripts in future Ben) 'Now thats what i call gangsters 2006' Possibly a more fitting title for such a dire film. Please allow me to elaborate Think of possibly every single 'villian' cliché in cinematic history, presented to us in a rapid 'MTV' style manner, all after one guy, and all introduced to us within the first ten minutes of the film. You've got Ace, (the guy they wanna kill because he double crossed the mafia, or something along those lines....it all becomes a blur after a while), the million members of the mafia (nice of them to explain what 'La Cosa Nostra' stands for right at the start, and then fail to explain anything else from that point onwards). and then comes the villains In no particular order: Some guy who takes on the deranged Hannibal lecter type character, (you gotta have the psycho), followed by the redneck Neo-Nazi brothers with the 'Mad Max' style attire, (and the inconspicuous chainsaws....discreet), Alisha Keys makes an appearance as the 'badass' street talking contract killer (thus bringing a more urban flavour to whole melting pot), you've got the eastern European master of disguise (who makes faces out of latex, and disguises himself as his dead victims...cunning)and a few other characters (who you soon forget about)...headache is the only way of describing this intro. After half an hour you're still probably as perplexed as you where within the first five minutes, because nothing is clarified (fine...a linear narrative, as we know is not the be and and end of all of films), but some kind of coherence is surely a must. Anyway in an over the top (being an understatement) way they all go to bring ace back to the mafia, trying to each get there before anyone else. The big twist (i say twist, although i really failed to care by this point), comes at the end when you find out the truth about why the mafia wanted ace really. OK heres what i don't get: The man who makes the faces from latex.....how on earth did he manage to kill Hugo, mould the guys face, let it dry, put it on, (powder it up with a bit of makeup), and get a wig identical to Hugo's actual hairdo...all in the space of what appeared to be no more than 10 minutes! Alisha keys' character.....runs off with that guy who worked for Ace, after about 2 seconds of meeting him, and allows her 'friend' to get gunned down by police, whilst shes outside with prince charming arranging a date location!rather unfair.. and WHY was she not arrested???? why were there another lot of prostitutes coming to aces penthouse when about 6 had just left! has this man never heard of chlamydia! This whole thing was very very laughable,especially the last part of the film with the '90's action movie' style blowing up and gunning down of everything in sight. I'm sure this movie wishes it was a Tarentino, because it tries so hard to be cool...but we all know that when you try too hard it shows. It upsets me that people are even trying to find comparisons between this movie and 'Goodfellas', because its like comparing a Mcdonalds to fine French cuisine. In Liotta's defence however, he was possibly the best thing about this mess of a movie. He just wasted his talents on such a bad movie.