 |  | Get Showtimes... |
Review #391 of 365
Movie Review of Smokin' Aces (2007) [R] 108 minutes
WIP™ Scale: (1st view $10.75 + 2nd View $9.25) / 2 = $10.00
Where Viewed: United Artists Denver Pavilions Stadium 15, Denver, CO
When 2nd Seen: 7 February 2007
Time: 8:15 p.m.
Film's Official Website • Film's Trailer
DVD Release Date: unscheduled
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 
— or — order the CD below
Click for 'Review Lite' [a 150-word or less review of this film]
Note: This is a spoiler review for Smokin' Aces. If you would prefer to read the non-spoiler review, please click here.
Since I first saw Smokin' Aces, a few close acquaintances have told me they loved the film or they thought the editing of the film was brilliant. So, I stand on record as saying now, some people will love this film, and I probably should have giving the film editors more credit. Whew, glad that's over! I re-read my non-spoiler review and fixed a few typos too, but most looking back to see what I had revealed and not revealed. Sometimes, it's a real trick to give a film a lukewarm review and not give away the plot twists or maybe the real deficiencies. Well, in the spoiler, those guards come off. So, please, if you don't want to know the tricks of the film when it comes to plot and ending, follow the advice above and click to read the non-spoiler because they will be revealed here. Also, to conserve time, please head back if you need to read a plot summary or to catch a bit of the good things I found in the film which, other than my compliments to the editors given above, won't be found here. Because, unfortunately, the second showing offered a chance for me to simmer again on all that is wrong with this film. That which is right with it, didn't increase in my thinking.
"A great film needs coherency, logical pacing, and a reason to care up until the end. Smokin' Aces lacks all three."
So, the plot twists:
(A) Guess what? Buddy Israel (Jeremy Piven) and Primo Sparazza (Joseph Ruskin) are father and son. Yes! Fooled you right? Never saw that coming. So, all this mental anguish that Buddy put himself through makes a bit more sense when you realize that he's planning to turn state's evidence on his very own papa can you hear me.
(A) Guess what? Buddy Israel (Jeremy Piven) and Primo Sparazza (Joseph Ruskin) are father and son. Yes! Fooled you right? Never saw that coming. So, all this mental anguish that Buddy put himself through makes a bit more sense when you realize that he's planning to turn state's evidence on his very own papa can you hear me.
(Click Still Photo to Purchase)
(B) Ah, but guess what? Papa wants Buddy's heart. He's dying and in the biologically totally inaccurate words of FBI Director Locke (Andy Garcia), "as his son, Buddy's heart is blood compatible." Wrong, children do not automatically have the same blood type as their parents, in fact, they can have very, very incompatible blood types if a type A mother marries a type B father leading to children with potentially type AB blood which would be very, very incompatible. Anyway, everyone relies on the fact that it will be possible to transplant Buddy's heart into the dying Sparazza and keep him alive. So, Sparazza puts out a contract to bring in his rogue son that ends up going to Lazlo Soot (Tommy Flanagan) who is hired to neutralize his entourage. A mysterious Swedish doctor is hired to conduct the transplant. Word gets around, however, that there is a $1,000,000 bounty for Israel drawing in these other professional assassins inadvertently to the game.
(C) Turns out that the state and the FBI are in on things at a level that truly makes no sense when they find out that Sparraza can be their prize, and that Sparraza is actually not Sparraza at all, but rather the psychologically mal-adjusted Freeman Heller (Mike Falkow). Freeman Heller being the first undercover agent to infiltrate the mob syndicate and begin to systematically bring the mob down from the inside by leaking intelligence and making decisions that would lead to their downfall. Eventually, he is shot and left for dead, only to rise up and assume the role of Sparraza turning to a life of crime. So, the FBI wants him back feeling bad for what happened and believing he will be more valuable in helping them than Israel.
So, the finale. Messner, one of the two agents ordered to do surveillance on Israel and then bring him in when the state's deal is worked out, figures out at the end that something's not right, that his partner is now dead as are a lot of other people because of lies and intrigue. He confronts Locke at the hospital where Israel has been taken. And this is where (A), (B), and (C) will be revealed to him by Locke, and he will find this information unfathomable. His and his partner's lives were put at risk for this mission. Now his partner is dead. So, after listening to the story and attacking the character and integrity of Locke, he promises to cool down and, instead, heads to the secured hospital room where he sees the two mean on life support sleeping peacefully. He enters the room, locks the sliding glass door, sits down between them, takes out his gun, ejects the shell, put it along with his badge on the floor in front of himself, reaches back, and pulls the electrical cords from the walls simultaneously. As the machines shut down, life support for the two villains ends, and they both start to slip slowly away. Alarms in the nurse's station, of course, alert everyone to the power failure and they come running. Apparently, nobody has a key to the room though, and they cannot get inside in time to save the pair. His actions are nearly inexplicable. What motivates him? Why has he decided to render this judgment with this degree of finality? Why has he put his career on the line over the wishes of his superiors? This key ingredient to understanding his motivation sinks the ending. It renders it as ineffectual as the rest of the film.
As I wrote in the non-spoiler, the revelation of the plot twists held back until the very end, also proves problematic for the success of the story. Had the father-son relationship been revealed mid-way through, and the Heller twist at the end, it would have helped sustain interest and intrigue in the film. Jeremy Pivens's work would have made more sense and been able to be more appreciated.
As it happens, the second viewing of Smokin' Aces made me like the film even less. It's flaws stood out in an even more glaring way. There are some brilliant characters and inspired scenes of genius. By the end the first time, I had forgotten, for example, all about Darwin Tremor's (Chris Pine) murder of Jack Dupree (Ben Affleck) which is followed up by a macabre human ventriloquist dummy action with Darwin manipulating the dead Dupree's mouth with his hand and thumb and throwing his voice so as if to have a conversation with the recently departed.
(Click Still Photo to Purchase)
As bizarre and disrespectful as this is, it is a masterpiece of horror comedy. But, again, a great film is not like a great episode of "Saturday Night Life" where 4 or 5 great sketches season coffee clutch conversations for months or circle the globe on You Tube™ until they are pulled for copyright infringement. A great film needs coherency, logical pacing, and a reason to care up until the end. Smokin' Aces lacks all three.
Back to Top | W.I.P. Scale™ | Most Recently Reviewed Films | Films of 2005 | Films of 2006 | Films of 2007
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
| CD | DVD | VHS |
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.
1 comment:
Great review.
Neither buddy or his father were hooked up to life support.
That's what pisses me off about this movie! people on life support cannot breathe on their own.
I know what people look like on life support, Ryan Reynold's character just pulled the plug on the monitors.
This film was semi enjoyable (and not nearly as violent as marketed)
But the writing, especially that scene, was so disgustingly stupid it still makes me livid.
Post a Comment