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Review #380 of 365
Movie Review of Smokin' Aces (2007) [R] 108 minutes
WIP™ Scale: $10.75
Where Viewed: United Artists Denver Pavilions Stadium 15, Denver, CO
When 1st Seen: 27 January 2007
Time: 8:15 p.m.
Film's Official Website • Film's Trailer
DVD Release Date: unscheduled
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Directed by: Joe Carnahan (Ticker -- 8 min short film)
Written by: Joe Carnahan (Narc)
Featured Cast (Where You Might Remember Him/Her From):
Ben Affleck (Hollywoodland) • Jason Bateman (Arthur and the Invisibles) • Common ("Chappelle's Show") • Joseph Ruskin (IceMaker) • Andy Garcia (The Lost City) • Alex Rocco (Find Me Guilty) • Alicia Keys ("American Dreams") • Wayne Newton (himself) • Ray Liotta ("Smith") • Jeremy Piven (Keeping Up with the Steins) • Peter Berg (Collateral) • Ryan Reynolds (Van Wilder) • Martin Henderson (Flyboys) • Davenia McFadden ("The Young and the Restless") • Taraji P. Henson (Something New) • Nestor Carbonell (The Lost City) • Chris Pine (Just My Luck) • Kevin Durand (Big Momma's House 2) • Maury Sterling ("ER") • George Fisher (Be Cool) • Tommy Flanagan (When a Stranger Calls) • Curtis Armstrong (Akeelah and the Bee) • Vladimir Kulich ("Angel")
Soundtrack: Download now from 
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Click for 'Review Lite' [a 150-word or less review of this film]
From its slick soundtrack and adrenalin junkie trailer to its cameo laden ensemble, blast from the past cast and Hollywood, "fierce for the moment", weekend wunderkind director, Joe Carnahan best known for his 8-minute BMW short film, everything possible has been done to set expectations way too high for Smokin' Aces. Even the double pun title has 'cult classic' written all over it. Alas, no reminders necessary, it's January, and has been illuminated repeatedly, other than as of yet not widely-released, Academy Award®-contenders, January joins the ranks as the month of the year with the least to offer film goers just behind abysmal August and frigid February. So, perhaps, setting expectations lower will result in a more reasonable approach to experiencing what amounts to a great idea-guy being green-lighted to make a minor disaster out of his film. If films were like record albums, ironically, there would be a few tracks of Smokin'Aces a lot of people might upload to You Tube™ to watch over and over again. As for the rest, well, they wouldn't get imported into the iTunes® library or put on any Playlist.
"…Smokin' Aces is going to do well initially…and then fade fast…"
The problem begins with two smart plot twists upon which all else hinges. They are nearly strong enough to save the film from utter collapse were it not for two things: they are both revealed at once rather than measured out (maybe one in the middle? and one at the end?) and the ending which either, though I won't reveal or spoil it here, leaves FBI agent Richard Messner (Ryan Reynolds) holding the bag or standing for wicked justice it's unclear which or why he is motivated to put himself in that situation. The motivations of his character, in fact, throughout the film are mystifying. In a gigantic and complex cast of characters, it is clear for some reason early on that he is of central importance, more so than the others, but why is never made obvious. His unprotected attempts at mouth-to-mouth resuscitation of his FBI partner Donald Carruthers (Ray Liotta) and overly possessive demands to know why he and his partner might have been put needlessly at risk (more on this in Plot And Problems) might yield to a few justifiable speculations, but nothing concrete was ever poured out. So, the net effect is that you have to wait way too long for things to make sense, and then everything that starts to make sense goes up in smoke—maybe that was appropriate not sure. It's a lot like a magic trick that takes two hours to finally get to the end which turns out to be pretty good until you notice the assistant that reappeared is blond, but her hair looks like a wig and you can see the dark bleached roots if you turn your head just the right way, but maybe you could on the original too, but you're not sure now, and then the curtain falls and smothers her to death, so now you'll never be sure.
Plot And Problems
Other than those aforementioned issues, there are a few other problems with the plot. But before getting to these, if you are not confused enough already, let's break down the plot a bit. FBI Agents Messner and Carruthers are debriefed by the operation director Stanley Locke (Andy Garcia) on the mob ties of one Buddy "Aces" Israel (Jeremy Piven), a big-time Las Vegas magician who decided he liked mob money and dealing with mobsters even more than card tricks and show girls and has agreed to turn over his boss, the lynch pin Godfather of all West Coast 'mobery', none other than Primo Sparazza (Joseph Ruskin). While the deal is being worked out with Israel's manager, Morris Mecklen (Curtis Armstrong), it has come to the attention of the FBI that Sparazza may have put out a contract on Israel. Cut to the craziest carnival of side show freak hired assassins ever assembled in one film from the nihilistic Tremor Brothers headed by a painfully unrecognizable Chris Pine playing Darwin, the sort of good-hearted cold-blooded murderer to the "Mission:Impossible" mask-making chameleon Lazlo Soot (Tommy Flanagan) to the are they or aren't they a couple Georgia Sykes (Alicia Keys) and Sharice Watters (Taraji P. Henson) to the royally inept trio headed up by Jack Dupree (Ben Affleck) to the slick as steel knitting needles Pasquale Acosta (Nestor Carbonell) and a mysterious Swede no one can figure out who he is. The deal is $1,000,000 for Israel's still beating heart.
Among the plot problems then are such things as that nothing from the contrived and convoluted plot would ever work right in the first place were it not for the complete ineptitude of the FBI. They decide it will be a brilliant idea to hole Israel up in a Penthouse at the Nomad Hotel in Lake Tahoe where "no one will ever think to look for a Vegas show star". And as alluded before, here's a head-scratcher, the director of the operation, Stanley Locke, gives the mission of bringing in Israel, once the immunity deal is struck in Los Angeles with Israel's manager, to a mere two agents. That's right just two are supposed to be able to fend off what could be dozens of assassins seeking the 'prize' money. Also, throughout the film, there are odd, sometimes humorous, side-show characters like the Karate Kid and his Grandma who live in a trailer and sort of nurse an assassin left for dead by the Tremor Brothers back to health to seek his revenge. Or how about Nomad Security chief, Bill (Matthew Fox) who has all eyes on a little old lady with blue hair is doing a little too well at Crap Table 12, but fails to be able to notice that the FBI agent asking him all these obvious security questions is really the infamous assassin Pasquale Acosta (Nestor Carbonell) until he lungs are filling with blood and Acosta says, "Close your eyes, you don't want this face to be held against you in heaven." A great but needless moment that has really zero to do with the film over all. And that's the main problem with the film in general. It's easy to see this is really a huge number of occasionally great, usually just ok, little short films all sort of linked together but which don't really coalesce nicely into a cohesive and sensible bigger story.
Casting and Acting and Writing Issues
More and more, I think people are starting to grow weary of stunt casting, or favor casting, or gratuitous cameos. People are smart enough to know it when they see it these days. So, top bill Ben Affleck all you want, this is not a Ben Affleck movie. Worse, his character, in particular, is so overly stuffed as to be nearly incomprehensible. Fortunately, and I don't feel bad revealing this, his character gets killed early on, just as one would expect from a top billed star right? Oh, and then there's Jason Bateman with second billing—guess they did it alphabetically. He actually does a brilliant, if overly drawn out, job with his character as a self-deprecating, former prep school boy who never threw a punch and apparently now dresses up as a bunny for good times, who hires Affleck's boys for a third party to kill Israel and collect the prize money. His on-screen time cannot be more than five maybe six total minutes. The sort of role that has somebody owed somebody else a favor written all over it. While the actors may do their jobs, they seem like that's what they are doing—their jobs. They almost never seem like they are enjoying it. As for the writing, well, some of the dialogue is rambling, incoherent babble. While others, most of Ryan Reynolds' lines, for example, are just ludicrous. Even Patrick Stewart or Ian McKellen couldn't make these lines sound good. They are just silly, caveman three word utterances. My favorite of these inexplicably horrendous lines is one near the end where Messner grabs Locke by the arm and says, "Talk to me like a man." What? Finally, there exists a nagging, omnipresent feeling that a backward approach was used to develop the script's structure as if Joe Carnahan came up with the plot twists first and then wrote the script backwards rather than writing forward and letting the story and the characters reveal the twists to him, and that, quite simply makes the whole affair seem far too contrived.
Memorable Moments or The Good Stuff
Ah well, I saved the best for last, because as I wrote before, there are some great tracks on this film album. I really thought Chris Pine's performance as Darwin Tremor was of inspired genius both in writing and character development. He is absolutely hilarious and beguiling. A whole movie of the Tremor Brothers and their escapades might have been a better idea. Honestly, I didn't recognize him until very far into the film. Second, Jeremy Piven does an unreal job as Buddy Israel. His character's lines and motivations are often chaotic, but he handles this with ease demonstrating his many years of classical training as an actor. He gets inside the role and truly becomes Buddy Israel and all of demons. There are numerous scenes, too few probably, where he is just mesmerizing. His climatic moment comes pretty far into the film where he and his closest bodyguard and handler, Ivy (Common), engage in an incredible game of words. Ivy figures out that Buddy is going to the feds and get a deal. But that the deal is only going to be really good for him if he turns in everyone he knows. Everyone. And Ivy's hands are far from clean. In fact, they've been doing Buddy's dirty work for years. It's the most riveting part of the film.
Conclusion
In summary, as a critic, I'd say two things at this point. I've got to love Joe Carnahan for trying this out. He had some excellent ideas, and he sold a lot of people on them. I bet he learned a lot from the experience and will learn a lot more as people react honestly to the work. What he needed for this film to be a masterpiece, and it could have been, was a mentor who could have gotten in between all of the people telling him he's a Hollywood genius and Fade In Magazine's "100 People in Hollywood You Need to Know" and the reality of writing and shooting a complex, major motion picture of this ambitious nature. Either his mentor didn't want to hurt his feelings or he didn't have one. Somebody should have said to Joe, "Gee Joe, there are some really great ideas here, but have you thought about some of the dialogue, the fact that your FBI agent Richard Messner has some key mysterious role you never explain, that the sideshow characters you build in spots as if they are steam valves for releasing dramatic tension that doesn't exist might not be necessary, that you have almost too many interesting side conversation relationships amongst the people in the film, etc.?" My feeling is that Smokin' Aces is going to do well initially at the box office and then fade fast based on word of mouth. It's not as bad as Alpha Dog, thank goodness, thanks to Chris Pine and Jeremy Pivens, but it's close.
Plot And Problems
Other than those aforementioned issues, there are a few other problems with the plot. But before getting to these, if you are not confused enough already, let's break down the plot a bit. FBI Agents Messner and Carruthers are debriefed by the operation director Stanley Locke (Andy Garcia) on the mob ties of one Buddy "Aces" Israel (Jeremy Piven), a big-time Las Vegas magician who decided he liked mob money and dealing with mobsters even more than card tricks and show girls and has agreed to turn over his boss, the lynch pin Godfather of all West Coast 'mobery', none other than Primo Sparazza (Joseph Ruskin). While the deal is being worked out with Israel's manager, Morris Mecklen (Curtis Armstrong), it has come to the attention of the FBI that Sparazza may have put out a contract on Israel. Cut to the craziest carnival of side show freak hired assassins ever assembled in one film from the nihilistic Tremor Brothers headed by a painfully unrecognizable Chris Pine playing Darwin, the sort of good-hearted cold-blooded murderer to the "Mission:Impossible" mask-making chameleon Lazlo Soot (Tommy Flanagan) to the are they or aren't they a couple Georgia Sykes (Alicia Keys) and Sharice Watters (Taraji P. Henson) to the royally inept trio headed up by Jack Dupree (Ben Affleck) to the slick as steel knitting needles Pasquale Acosta (Nestor Carbonell) and a mysterious Swede no one can figure out who he is. The deal is $1,000,000 for Israel's still beating heart.
Among the plot problems then are such things as that nothing from the contrived and convoluted plot would ever work right in the first place were it not for the complete ineptitude of the FBI. They decide it will be a brilliant idea to hole Israel up in a Penthouse at the Nomad Hotel in Lake Tahoe where "no one will ever think to look for a Vegas show star". And as alluded before, here's a head-scratcher, the director of the operation, Stanley Locke, gives the mission of bringing in Israel, once the immunity deal is struck in Los Angeles with Israel's manager, to a mere two agents. That's right just two are supposed to be able to fend off what could be dozens of assassins seeking the 'prize' money. Also, throughout the film, there are odd, sometimes humorous, side-show characters like the Karate Kid and his Grandma who live in a trailer and sort of nurse an assassin left for dead by the Tremor Brothers back to health to seek his revenge. Or how about Nomad Security chief, Bill (Matthew Fox) who has all eyes on a little old lady with blue hair is doing a little too well at Crap Table 12, but fails to be able to notice that the FBI agent asking him all these obvious security questions is really the infamous assassin Pasquale Acosta (Nestor Carbonell) until he lungs are filling with blood and Acosta says, "Close your eyes, you don't want this face to be held against you in heaven." A great but needless moment that has really zero to do with the film over all. And that's the main problem with the film in general. It's easy to see this is really a huge number of occasionally great, usually just ok, little short films all sort of linked together but which don't really coalesce nicely into a cohesive and sensible bigger story.
Casting and Acting and Writing Issues
More and more, I think people are starting to grow weary of stunt casting, or favor casting, or gratuitous cameos. People are smart enough to know it when they see it these days. So, top bill Ben Affleck all you want, this is not a Ben Affleck movie. Worse, his character, in particular, is so overly stuffed as to be nearly incomprehensible. Fortunately, and I don't feel bad revealing this, his character gets killed early on, just as one would expect from a top billed star right? Oh, and then there's Jason Bateman with second billing—guess they did it alphabetically. He actually does a brilliant, if overly drawn out, job with his character as a self-deprecating, former prep school boy who never threw a punch and apparently now dresses up as a bunny for good times, who hires Affleck's boys for a third party to kill Israel and collect the prize money. His on-screen time cannot be more than five maybe six total minutes. The sort of role that has somebody owed somebody else a favor written all over it. While the actors may do their jobs, they seem like that's what they are doing—their jobs. They almost never seem like they are enjoying it. As for the writing, well, some of the dialogue is rambling, incoherent babble. While others, most of Ryan Reynolds' lines, for example, are just ludicrous. Even Patrick Stewart or Ian McKellen couldn't make these lines sound good. They are just silly, caveman three word utterances. My favorite of these inexplicably horrendous lines is one near the end where Messner grabs Locke by the arm and says, "Talk to me like a man." What? Finally, there exists a nagging, omnipresent feeling that a backward approach was used to develop the script's structure as if Joe Carnahan came up with the plot twists first and then wrote the script backwards rather than writing forward and letting the story and the characters reveal the twists to him, and that, quite simply makes the whole affair seem far too contrived.
Memorable Moments or The Good Stuff
Ah well, I saved the best for last, because as I wrote before, there are some great tracks on this film album. I really thought Chris Pine's performance as Darwin Tremor was of inspired genius both in writing and character development. He is absolutely hilarious and beguiling. A whole movie of the Tremor Brothers and their escapades might have been a better idea. Honestly, I didn't recognize him until very far into the film. Second, Jeremy Piven does an unreal job as Buddy Israel. His character's lines and motivations are often chaotic, but he handles this with ease demonstrating his many years of classical training as an actor. He gets inside the role and truly becomes Buddy Israel and all of demons. There are numerous scenes, too few probably, where he is just mesmerizing. His climatic moment comes pretty far into the film where he and his closest bodyguard and handler, Ivy (Common), engage in an incredible game of words. Ivy figures out that Buddy is going to the feds and get a deal. But that the deal is only going to be really good for him if he turns in everyone he knows. Everyone. And Ivy's hands are far from clean. In fact, they've been doing Buddy's dirty work for years. It's the most riveting part of the film.
Conclusion
In summary, as a critic, I'd say two things at this point. I've got to love Joe Carnahan for trying this out. He had some excellent ideas, and he sold a lot of people on them. I bet he learned a lot from the experience and will learn a lot more as people react honestly to the work. What he needed for this film to be a masterpiece, and it could have been, was a mentor who could have gotten in between all of the people telling him he's a Hollywood genius and Fade In Magazine's "100 People in Hollywood You Need to Know" and the reality of writing and shooting a complex, major motion picture of this ambitious nature. Either his mentor didn't want to hurt his feelings or he didn't have one. Somebody should have said to Joe, "Gee Joe, there are some really great ideas here, but have you thought about some of the dialogue, the fact that your FBI agent Richard Messner has some key mysterious role you never explain, that the sideshow characters you build in spots as if they are steam valves for releasing dramatic tension that doesn't exist might not be necessary, that you have almost too many interesting side conversation relationships amongst the people in the film, etc.?" My feeling is that Smokin' Aces is going to do well initially at the box office and then fade fast based on word of mouth. It's not as bad as Alpha Dog, thank goodness, thanks to Chris Pine and Jeremy Pivens, but it's close.
If you would like to read the spoiler review for Smokin' Aces, please click here.
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Click for 'Review Lite' [a 150-word review of this film]
Click for 'Review Lite' [a 150-word review of this film]
Other Projects Featuring Smokin' Aces (2007)
Cast Members
Ben Affleck
• Jason Bateman • Common Joseph Ruskin
• Andy Garcia • Alex RoccoAlicia Keys
• Wayne Newton • Ray LiottaJeremy Piven
• Peter Berg • Ryan ReynoldsMartin Henderson
• Mike Falkow • Davenia McFaddenTaraji Henson
• Nestor Carbonell • Chris PineKevin Durand
• Maury Sterling • George FisherTommy Flanagan
• Curtis Armstrong • Vladimir Kulich Writer / Director
Joe Carnahan
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Smokin's Aces (2007) Review-lite [150-word cap]
From its slick soundtrack and adrenalin junkie trailer to its cameo laden ensemble, blast from the past cast and Hollywood, "fierce for the moment", weekend wunderkind director, Joe Carnahan best known for his 8-minute BMW short film everything possible has been done to set expectations way too high for Smokin' Aces. Jeremy Pivens as Buddy "Aces" Israel and an inspired performance as Darwin Tremor by Chris Pine are the only bright spots in this otherwise overly ambitious, awkwardly implemented, sort of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels has a slumber party with The Usual Suspects and Waiting…. Plot twists held too long, stunt casting and cameos, garbled dialogue, and unwilling and unidentifiable tragic hero, side-show characters that detract from the central story are just a few items on the list that take this film down the wrong road. Good effort marks for Carnahan, but low marks for execution.
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