Movies like this are, like I've said many times before, a dime a dozen but once in a great while you get a rare coin in the bunch of old dull ones, and Smokin' Aces is that rare coin. It's slick, stylish, brutal, funny at times, dark , witty and smart It's got the making of a great action thriller and it's not afraid to show it.



Smokin' Aces is a brash action film that is straight out of the mind of Qunetin Tarantino, sadly he's not directing, but that's okay because this film is kind of a homage to his work and will please any fan of Tarantino or fans of action films alike. But ti also has it's downsides. Smokin' Aces at some points in the film it relies to heavily on the action and that takes away from the good conspiracy story and air of mystery it has buried underneath it all. But all in all Smokin' Aces is an awesome thriller with spectacular action and a jaw dropping twist that you won't see coming.




Jeremy Piven does great here as the man everybody wants to kill, Piven puts all his comedic and dramatic talent into the role of a strung out, douche bag magical who's at the ends. And he plays it better than anything I've seen him do before/ Ryan Reynolds is good as the rookie FBI agent assigned to protect Buddy Israel(Piven), he's got the smarts and the attitude to play the part and he pulls it off nicely but falls short in some places when he's needed the most. Ray liotta(Who I don't like much as an actor.) is not as good here as he was in John Q Or Identity but holds up well. The cast is great and they help move this film up past the regular actioneer standards.





Smokin' Aces is just like the title suggest, this film is on fire and the fire won't die down till the bodies stop dropping credits roll. It's a good action thriller with high class qualities and enough action, jokes, style and plot twist to satisfy you, it may not be the most original action film but ti sure is different in it's own special way. All in all it's one hit you 'll want in on.

There is a new genre infesting our nation's movie theaters. With apologies to Garrison Kellior, let's call it "guy noir". Films aimed directly at the young, hip male audience. Movies that are an unholy combination of old fashioned film noir and the modern action movie, as directed by the class clown. They offer fast paced entertainment, great character actors, twisty plot lines, explosions and more spent ordinance than used in a typical week in Baghdad. Even new genres breed clichés however and the original freshness heralded by Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction is beginning to smell the slightest bit stale. This brings us to Smokin' Aces, a movie that isn't so smug as to be intolerable or so brilliant as to be ground breaking. Rather it is good, competent, workmanlike example of its genre, which is bad news for a movie that wants to be hip and edgy.

Smokin' Aces has the requisite twisty plot. Actually it has at least nine plots, all twisty. In fact it has so many plots the movie dissolves into a series of incidences strung together by a smattering of narrative glue. Aces, a card magician and mob nabob, turns federal stoolie and a dying Godfather posts a high dollar contract on him. Naturally every photogenic hit-man with the weekend free descends upon Ace's casino penthouse to do the job and collect the dough. Smokin' Aces tries hard and includes everything needed to qualify as guy noir. It even tries to incorporate the "Tarantino Digression". That is, extended expository flashbacks incorporated for no good reason except that they are fun to watch. Smoking Aces can't quite pull these off as they require a defter touch than the movie is capable of.

There aren't any real people in Smokin' Aces. All the characters are strictly stereotypes played for effect rather than reality. Jeremy Piven as Aces is the self loathing hop head, Alicia Keys and Georgia Sykes are the hot lesbian hit team, Ben Afleck is the hipster bounty hunter and so on. Everything you need to know about these guys you learn in the first split second they are on the screen. There is no star in Smokin' Aces. Afleck, the biggest name, has a relatively small part and is upstaged by his hat. You might remember Chris Pine, Kevin Durand and Maury Sterling as the Tremor brothers if only because they were the loudest, most violent bunch in a loud violent movie. The only actor who rises above caricature is Ray Liotta, who invests his FBI agent with quiet dignity and a touch of pathos and in doing so sticks out like a sore thumb. It takes a strange sort of movie for a review to criticize the one genuinely good performance in it but Liotta just doesn't fit.

Smokin' Aces manages to hold its whirly gig self together for the most part. There are a few problems. It goes on too long after the climatic blood bath wrapping up plot threads you probably didn't notice amongst the explosions. There is a denouement where a hero, brought in from way out in left field, makes an existential choice that is not nearly as agonizing as the movie thinks it is because we have no emotional investment in the fellow making it. Though the final plot twist is prepared for and makes as much sense as anything else in the film, still it feels flat and unsatisfying. Think of Smokin' Aces as a shaggy dog story. It's long, involved and fun to listen to but ultimately goes nowhere.

I will have to say it has a whole lot of action and many brand name actors/actresses, but it's not a "Snatch" or "Swordfish" caliber heist killer movie. Maybe I'm off here but I would not say it has potential to be remembered ten years from now!