Smoking Aces

[Hoss]

Should have been called "Smoking Asses"

The basic premise - a Vegas entertainer/gangster decides to turn states evidence. While his agent hammers out the details of his agreement with the FBI a bunch of assassins try to kill him.

The convoluted subplot - A big mess about the first ever undercover FBI agent.

I have no way of knowing what the director and screen writer intended, but this felt like either two separate movies that were combined into one or that the director made a terrible stylistic choice for the screenplay. To be more clear, this was either a Usual Suspects wannabe screenplay combined with the screenplay for a big action flick like Kill Bill or a Usual Suspects screenplay wannabe directed like it was Kill Bill. Either way it didn't work.

The shame - the cast was stellar. Ryan Renolds was good as a young FBI agent, Andy Garcia was dead on as the FBI big wig, Ray Liotta can do a great job as an ageing FBI agent in his spleep, Jeremy Piven was hillarious as always as the rat, the collection of over the top hitmen was funny and varied, even Ben Affleck was doing his best playing his south Boston tough guy.

But this movie was a mess - one minute a farce - the next a serious drama - then a crime mystery - then an over the top popcorn action flick.

Pick one movie and make it. no need to be all things to all people.

[Dreadstar]

There was actually a lot of fun in the movie, but yeah, it was a mess.

Plus, there's ONE HUGE GLARING plot fault:


WHY put out word that Buddy's "heart" is worth a million dollars WITHOUT the attendant caveat that it's LITERALLY needed in good working condition as a transplant?

How fucking stupid is it to throw in a bunch of wild cards to mess up what your *controlled* operative is trying to achieve?

And that was just one hole.

And, hands in the air, who saw the movie and DIDN'T figure out most of the plot twists? I think I got 4 out of 5.

I did like the ending, though.

[Nate Grey]

I liked it until it became Exposition Time for the final 15 minutes. I had already guessed the truth about Sprazzo (kinda obvious when they showed the first undercover agent and his plans), but I didn't guess Aces's connection to Sprazzo until Garcia said it out loud during Exposition Time.

[Karl O'Neill]

Those 3 nazis were funny,
nazis are used alot these days,
see johns jsa

[Nate Grey]

There was actually a lot of fun in the movie, but yeah, it was a mess.

Plus, there's ONE HUGE GLARING plot fault:


WHY put out word that Buddy's "heart" is worth a million dollars WITHOUT the attendant caveat that it's LITERALLY needed in good working condition as a transplant?

How fucking stupid is it to throw in a bunch of wild cards to mess up what your *controlled* operative is trying to achieve?

And that was just one hole.

And, hands in the air, who saw the movie and DIDN'T figure out most of the plot twists? I think I got 4 out of 5.

I did like the ending, though.

I'm still trying to reconcile that myself. I took it to mean that Serna at the beginning was trying to betray Sprazzo by doing this, putting the word out on the streat. That Sprazzo himself ordered Zartan to get the heart, and all the other people were from that dude at the beginning trying to mess it up.

[Hoss]

By the way, Nestor Carbonel (of Bat Manuel fame) who plays the Spanish assassin is my second cousin. Only met him once or twice but it is cool to see someone in your extended family on the big screen.

[Hoss]

Those 3 nazis were funny,
nazis are used alot these days,
see johns jsa

Neo Nazis are the new ninjas

[I Must Break U]

God am i the only one who thought the movie was incredibly entertaining. I mean it was what i expected of it! I went into the theater expecting t to be all over the place.

[MadroxTMMan]

It felt like a great collection of engaging characters...with a plot that would take 6 panels of old school Edgar Rice Burrough's Tarzan to convey. If not for all the character exposition, the movie would have been about 8 minutes long.

[SnowTrooper]

There were things about this movie I liked and things that just confused the hell out of me.

Affleck's character getting killed so early in the movie just caught me off gaurd and kinda ruined the next 20 minutes or so of the movie for me.

I liked how Israel's right hand man didnt die. I hate it when the cool black guy in the movie gets killed but it didnt happen in this one. He killed some hillbilly assassins and got the hot girl at the end. That was cool.

That little retarded karate kid that kept messing with the guy who got his fingers shot off. It just didnt make any sense at all and if I was that guy I'd kick that little weirdos ass.

[Dreadstar]

There were things about this movie I liked and things that just confused the hell out of me.

That little retarded karate kid that kept messing with the guy who got his fingers shot off. It just didnt make any sense at all and if I was that guy I'd kick that little weirdos ass.


Not retarded.
You might have missed it, but there was a shot of meds in the bathroom cabinet. The kid was on some hardcore ritalin. That and the way mom handled him suggested that, unlike the over-diagnosed and over-medicated youth of today, this kid might actually have been the real deal ADD, Hyperkinetic child. Even if he was just being the over-indulged over-diagnosed momma's treasure, the idea still fits in fine.

I did like how after a couple hours with the kid, the bounty hunter scarfed down a handful for himself.

[KenK]

Not retarded.
You might have missed it, but there was a shot of meds in the bathroom cabinet. The kid was on some hardcore ritalin. That and the way mom handled him suggested that, unlike the over-diagnosed and over-medicated youth of today, this kid might actually have been the real deal ADD, Hyperkinetic child. Even if he was just being the over-indulged over-diagnosed momma's treasure, the idea still fits in fine.

I did like how after a couple hours with the kid, the bounty hunter scarfed down a handful for himself.

That kid was so cool! Hilarious!:D

[Black Atom]

As others have said, one of the "twists" was pretty obvious from the get-go. It constantly reminded me of more fun and funnier crime movies, like Snatch, which had a more interesting, cool and eclectic group of gangsters. A lot of these guys were under-utilized (Alicia Keys spends most of the movie waiting for a flippin' elevator). A lot of the dialog falls short, too. Scenes like the one with Aces chewing out one of his guys for getting semen on an axpensive coat or Alicia Keys' partner ranting about women's rights reminded me of better vulgarity-filled monologues from the likes of Pulp Fiction. The acting, though, is pretty superb. Ryan Reynolds and Jeremy Piven are both great.

[KenK]

As others have said, one of the "twists" was pretty obvious from the get-go. It constantly reminded me of more fun and funnier crime movies, like Snatch, which had a more interesting, cool and eclectic group of gangsters. A lot of these guys were under-utilized (Alicia Keys spends most of the movie waiting for a flippin' elevator). A lot of the dialog falls short, too. Scenes like the one with Aces chewing out one of his guys for getting semen on an axpensive coat or Alicia Keys' partner ranting about women's rights reminded me of better vulgarity-filled monologues from the likes of Pulp Fiction. The acting, though, is pretty superb. Ryan Reynolds and Jeremy Piven are both great.

I actually thought the dialogue was perfect. Especially Piven cursing out one of his dudes about the coat. Him mimicking the guy's accent was hilarious. But yeah, one of the twists I saw coming a mile away.

[Nikita]

I enjoyed the movie. Just saw it tonight actually. I just enjoyed it for what it was. Decent story, decent acting. Maybe a tad predictable but I liked the idea of all these different assassins for hire going after Piven. And Ryan Reynolds, was lovely as always. (Alicia Keys was pretty good too)

I'd recommend it.

[clayholio]

I didn't mind the movie once the beginning was over. My fundamental rule of storytelling is "show, don't tell," and the first chunk was endless blah blah blah because the filmmaker couldn't figure out how to introduce all the characters. Anyways, that's my interpretation. Once that was out of the way, it was good, mindless entertainment.