Smokin' Aces

Smokin’ Aces is messy; a loud cacophony of a film that is tonally all over the map. Yet in the midst of this depraved chaos, director Joe Carnahan finds great moments. It’s easy to see the many flaws, and there are numerous problems with this flick (the kid in the karate uniform is one of the worst movie characters of all time!), but there’s a boundless enthusiasm at work here, and a crazed sense of creativity.

The plot is much simpler than the movie would have you believe. There’s a witness, Buddy Israel (Jeremy Piven) who is about to testify against the mob. The mob wants him dead and offers a million dollars to whoever can do it. So, while Buddy is holed up in the penthouse suite of a Lake Tahoe hotel a whole slew of bizarre assassins tries to kill him while the FBI tries to keep him alive. Yep, Smokin’ Aces is essentially It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World by way of Pulp Fiction with a coked out snitch under the Big “W” rather than a suitcase of cash.

What makes Smokin’ Aces stand out from the recent rash of high octane crime flicks is that it doesn’t play everything for laughs. There are funny moments, to be sure, but Carnahan isn’t making a comedy; he’s making a grand over the top melodrama, and there are several scenes that reach bizarre emotional heights. From an assassin comforting his dying victim to a distraught sniper desperately trying to protect the woman she loves, Carnahan’s script slips beneath the cool veneers of these characters and exposes, if only for a moment or two, their true selves. That’s not to say Smokin’ Aces is deep or profound, it isn’t, but it at least allows its cast of amoral characters a chance to be human, which seems so rare in today’s “cool” action flicks.

And once the action kicks in, Smokin’ Aces is intense. There’s nothing too revolutionary, but what is there is smartly choreographed, well shot, and suspenseful. A confrontation in an elevator between an FBI agent and one of the assassins, where a tiny change in body language could lead to sudden death, is gripping. Equally impressive is a gore-drenched battle involving three nihilist killers, chainsaws, shotguns, bombs, and a group of vastly unprepared security guards.

Smokin’ Aces takes one too many unnecessary detours to be truly great (when that karate kid shows up gauge out your eyeballs – you’ll thank me later), and skims over characters you want to spend more time with, but it’s a fun ride overall.

Star Rating *** out of 4