Smokin' Aces (2006)
Directed by Joe Carnahan
When a Las Vegas performer-turned-snitch named Buddy Israel decides to turn state's evidence and testify against the mob, it seems that a whole lot of people would like to make sure he's no longer breathing.
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In quick succession we're introduced to FBI Agents Donald Carruthers (Ray Liotta, "Goodfellas") and Richard Messner (Ryan Reynolds, 2005's "The Amityville Horror"), dispatched by FBI Deputy Director Stanley Locke (Andy Garcia, "Ocean's Twelve") to protect Aces so he can turn state's evidence; hit woman booker Loretta Wyman (Davenia McFadden, "American Gun") sends lethal lesbians Georgia Sykes (singer Alicia Keys), the catnip, and Sharice Watters (Taraji P. Henson, "Hustle & Flow"), the firepower; Darwin (Chris Pine, "Just My Luck"), Jeeves (Kevin Durand, "Walking Tall") and Lester Tremor (Maury Sterling) are chainsaw-wielding, mad-cap Road-Warrioresque neo-Nazis while torture specialist Pasquale Acosta (Nestor Carbonell) and 'Mission Impossible-style' master of disguise Lazlo Soot (Tommy Flanagan, 2006's "When a Stranger Calls" hark from overseas.
Henson, who played the pregnant prostitute in Hustle & Flow, is the movie's strongest dramatic presence, and Jason Bateman, as a degenerate, self-loathing lawyer, provides the funniest two-and-a-half minutes (is there anything Jason Bateman doesn't make funnier?).
Among the shooters: singer Alicia Keys, in a counter-intuitive but not-embarrassing film debut as a tarted-up killer with a female sniper partner (Taraji Henson from "Hustle & Flow"); a trio of crazy neo-Nazis; and a master of disguise (Tommy Flanagan).
In a hotel across the way, the fabulous Taraji P. Henson (that singing hooker from "Hustle & Flow") sits behind one of the biggest guns I've ever seen.
In quick succession we're introduced to FBI Agents Donald Carruthers (Ray Liotta, "Goodfellas") and Richard Messner (Ryan Reynolds, 2005's "The Amityville Horror"), dispatched by FBI Deputy Director Stanley Locke (Andy Garcia, "Ocean's Twelve") to protect Aces so he can turn state's evidence; hit woman booker Loretta Wyman (Davenia McFadden, "American Gun") sends lethal lesbians Georgia Sykes (singer Alicia Keys), the catnip, and Sharice Watters (Taraji P. Henson, "Hustle & Flow"), the firepower; Darwin (Chris Pine, "Just My Luck"), Jeeves (Kevin Durand, "Walking Tall") and Lester Tremor (Maury Sterling) are chainsaw-wielding, mad-cap Road-Warrioresque neo-Nazis while torture specialist Pasquale Acosta (Nestor Carbonell) and 'Mission Impossible-style' master of disguise Lazlo Soot (Tommy Flanagan, 2006's "When a Stranger Calls" hark from overseas.
Fun Fact: Still Smokin' and Stroker Ace were both released in 1983; the year Smokin' Aces most readily (if unfortunately) calls to mind, however, is 1993, with Reservoir Dogs still smoldering, True Romance on deck and Pulp Fiction and a host of Guy-wannabes to come.
Comparisons could be made to "Pulp Fiction", "Snatch" and/or "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" but I feel that is inaccurate.
Andy Garcia heads the FBI team, Ray Liotta and Ryan Reynolds are his crack investigators, Ben Affleck is a bail bondsman trying to save a lawyer's investment, and Alicia Keys shows up as a hottie assassin who trash-talks with her partner (Taraji P. Henson) in exactly the same manner as John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson in "Pulp Fiction."
The title, the poster and the slam-bam trailer suggest a movie about a crack team of professional troublemakers and problem-solvers, in the vein of Mission: Impossible, Ocean's 11 and 12, Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs and Guy Ritchie's Snatch.
Fun Fact: Still Smokin' and Stroker Ace were both released in 1983; the year Smokin' Aces most readily (if unfortunately) calls to mind, however, is 1993, with Reservoir Dogs still smoldering, True Romance on deck and Pulp Fiction and a host of Guy-wannabes to come.
It’s loud, funny, and intentionally overdone, a bloody crime caper that feels like the offspring of “Reservoir Dogs,” “Ocean’s Eleven,” and last year’s “Running Scared.”
Screenwriter/director Joe Carnahan employs a lurid look and style that are more reminiscent of the films of Guy Ritchie ("Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels") than his own cop-thriller "Narc."
Writer-director Joe Carnahan trades the gritty realism of his previous film NARC for an over-the-top bullet opera riddled with dark comedy.
Writer/director Joe Carnahan (see "Blood, Guts, Bullets and Octane" and "Narc") makes an overreaching but inspired effort at reinventing the dumb-gangsters-with-big-guns motif that Quentin Tarantino created and continues to modify.
Carnahan, who made his mark with the gritty crime thriller “Narc,” flexes his stylistic talents with a film that is long on flashy looks and violence but short on substance.
Four years ago, you scored a modest hit with Narc, a tightly plotted if ultimately empty buddy-cop-betrayal drama starring Ray Liotta and Jason Patric.
Writer-director Joe Carnahan originally established himself as a passable Tarantino clone with Blood, Guts, Bullets and Octane, then seemed to transcend it with the brilliant Narc .
Writer and director Joe Carnahan drops the labored pessimism of his last film, Narc, returning to the manic, propulsive style that marked his 1998 feature debut, Blood, Guts, Bullets and Octane.
Based on Blood, Guts, Bullets and Octane, it's a wonder that Joe Carnahan was able to find a second gig.
He has an uneven resume - he made the low-budget exploitation thriller Blood, Guts, Bullets and Octane and the effective cop movie Narc.
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In quick succession we're introduced to FBI Agents Donald Carruthers (Ray Liotta, "Goodfellas") and Richard Messner (Ryan Reynolds, 2005's "The Amityville Horror"), dispatched by FBI Deputy Director Stanley Locke (Andy Garcia, "Ocean's Twelve") to protect Aces so he can turn state's evidence; hit woman booker Loretta Wyman (Davenia McFadden, "American Gun") sends lethal lesbians Georgia Sykes (singer Alicia Keys), the catnip, and Sharice Watters (Taraji P. Henson, "Hustle & Flow"), the firepower; Darwin (Chris Pine, "Just My Luck"), Jeeves (Kevin Durand, "Walking Tall") and Lester Tremor (Maury Sterling) are chainsaw-wielding, mad-cap Road-Warrioresque neo-Nazis while torture specialist Pasquale Acosta (Nestor Carbonell) and 'Mission Impossible-style' master of disguise Lazlo Soot (Tommy Flanagan, 2006's "When a Stranger Calls" hark from overseas.
Fun Fact: Still Smokin' and Stroker Ace were both released in 1983; the year Smokin' Aces most readily (if unfortunately) calls to mind, however, is 1993, with Reservoir Dogs still smoldering, True Romance on deck and Pulp Fiction and a host of Guy-wannabes to come.
In quick succession we're introduced to FBI Agents Donald Carruthers (Ray Liotta, "Goodfellas") and Richard Messner (Ryan Reynolds, 2005's "The Amityville Horror"), dispatched by FBI Deputy Director Stanley Locke (Andy Garcia, "Ocean's Twelve") to protect Aces so he can turn state's evidence; hit woman booker Loretta Wyman (Davenia McFadden, "American Gun") sends lethal lesbians Georgia Sykes (singer Alicia Keys), the catnip, and Sharice Watters (Taraji P. Henson, "Hustle & Flow"), the firepower; Darwin (Chris Pine, "Just My Luck"), Jeeves (Kevin Durand, "Walking Tall") and Lester Tremor (Maury Sterling) are chainsaw-wielding, mad-cap Road-Warrioresque neo-Nazis while torture specialist Pasquale Acosta (Nestor Carbonell) and 'Mission Impossible-style' master of disguise Lazlo Soot (Tommy Flanagan, 2006's "When a Stranger Calls" hark from overseas.
A gruesome Cannonball Run with Piven flesh as the trophy, Smokin' Aces is a depressingly nihilistic entry in the Tarantino/Guy Ritchie/Ocean's Eleven caper genre.
It’s loud, funny, and intentionally overdone, a bloody crime caper that feels like the offspring of “Reservoir Dogs,” “Ocean’s Eleven,” and last year’s “Running Scared.”
Big question: Can writer-director Joe Carnahan ("Narc") turn this boorish ensemble piece into more than a mix of "Lucky Number Slevin" and "Ocean's Eleven"?
As I watched the frenetic plot unfold in “Smokin Aces,” I couldn’t shake comparing it to the extended standoff and shootout finale in director Tony Scott’s far superior “True Romance” (1993).
Fun Fact: Still Smokin' and Stroker Ace were both released in 1983; the year Smokin' Aces most readily (if unfortunately) calls to mind, however, is 1993, with Reservoir Dogs still smoldering, True Romance on deck and Pulp Fiction and a host of Guy-wannabes to come.
The plot is a little "True Romance" with a twist of "The Usual Suspects."
It's like "True Romance" crossed with "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" remade with the artistic vision of "Domino."
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There’s so much drilled into the layers of the story, the whole thing seems about to turn into Jerry Garcia’s favorite movie, The Saragossa Manuscript.
What these corpses-to-be assclowns add up to is a hipster's It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World retelling, with the much coveted "big W" ("W" as in "Why the fuck are we still making films that look like they were edited with a epileptic blender?") embodied by Jeremy Piven, a mob-connected Las Vegas entertainer who, as the authorities' major witness, waffles around in a burgundy bathrobe.