Rent Smokin' Aces (2006)

Trigger Happy and Half-Baked - Smokin' Aces review by griggs

Smokin’ Aces is all noise, no substance. It throws a dozen assassins, FBI agents, and mobsters into a blender and hopes chaos equals cool. There’s style to burn—fast cuts, big guns, flashy suits—but not much sense beneath it all. The cast is stacked, but most are wasted in paper-thin roles. It’s like Guy Ritchie on Red Bull, minus the wit. Occasionally fun, mostly exhausting. A film that mistakes excess for excitement.

Boys day out - Smokin' Aces review by NC

Everyone in this. Bodies all over the place. Bish bosh bash. Lead flying quite a bit. If you like action, then plenty of that.

A bloated mess of a film, whose occasional flashes of brilliance cannot make up for terrible pacing - Smokin' Aces review by Timmy B

In 2002, Narc was released. I will never forget watching it and being absolutely blown away & gripped by this seismic, bone-shakingly impactful masterpiece. Made on a nano-budget whose funds sometimes didn't appear (but whose cast & crew continued working, despite no money,) it was one of those films which obliterated it's competition, which was almost always considerably better-financed & promoted Hollywood schlock whose stories couldn't hold a candle to Narc's gritty & brutal script.

Having created Narc, Joe Carnahan in many ways could have done whatever he wanted. And he took his time with his next film, which often is a good sign that someone who has had success is being careful with the follow-up. And on paper, Smokin' Aces sounds amazing: reuniting with Ray Liotta, alongside a cast of either A-Listers (Affleck,) or up-and-comers (Reynolds;) the budget to fully realise his vision without compromise; multi-strand narratives which when done right yield amazing results; a script with crazy action sequences ect.

But despite all this potential & promise, the result is a near total write-off...

Buddy Israel is a one-time mafia member & Vegas showman who turns FBI informant when his luck runs out. His nemesis Sparazza issues a $1 million bounty for Israel's heart, which is leaked & starts a frantic race by contract killers to track him down and collect the bounty. Israel is holed up in a Vegas hotel, which becomes the battleground of the many competing hitmen to claim the prize.

When you read the set-up, it sounds like it could be an absolute riot, especially when in the right hands. But Carnahan completely loses control of things. The many narrative storylines are all over the place, badly edited & filmed, meaning you frequently lose track of who is who and what they are doing. After a while, you end up just getting annoyed and not caring.

Speaking of annoying, this film is full of teeth-grindingly irritating & revolting characters. Whilst you have the standard & sometimes inspired people (Keys makes a big impact/debut,) these are overwhelmed by characters who I absolutely detested. The Tremor Brothers are 3 Neo-Nazis who graphically slaughter everyone in sight; a kid with highly exaggerated behavioural problems is one of the most punchable creations ever put on screen & who Carnahan seems to think is hysterical; and Buddy Israel is just a contemptible & boorish idiot who the film thinks, because he can do some sleight-of-hand magic tricks, will keep our attention...

But even films with a rollcall like that can still be saved with great action scenes. However, again Smokin' Aces catastrophically drops the ball: the film spends considerable amounts of time building up to what you think will be an incredible action sequence, when all the contract killers collide in the hotel (just imagine what could be achieved in that setting with the budget they had,) but then completely blows it.

The editing is all over the place, so instead of a traditional action sequence, the film just lurches in every direction, desperately trying to swing for everything & hitting almost nothing. A lot of things happen very loudly & violently, with the film randomly cutting away to other scenes before going back to the action, totally killing momentum. And any investment you may have still had in the film is lost.

There are some good elements, plus the final reveal does pack a bit of an emotional punch. But it is genuinely so disappointing & frustrating that the man who made Narc has then created something which had so much potential and squandered it. It is the cinematic equivalent of a multiple pile-up, and not in a good way...