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Feminist hit women, soccer hooligan hit men, and a chameleon. All of
whom are vying for the main prize, the heart and head of a very desired
mob snitch, and they’re the cavalcade of characters that make up the
rather entertaining “Smokin’ Aces” a film in the vein of “Ocean’s
Eleven” and “Sin City,” that oozes styles, and unabashedly embraces the
fact that it’s basically nothing but a moving comic book, while also
providing one hell of a juicy throwback to the Grind house era.
Carnahan, director of the excellent "Narc," knows what his movie is from
the get go, and he flaunts its sheer cheese at every corner.
More so, it’s less the unabashed campy film the trailers perceive it as
and really does attempt a more elaborate mystery that takes place in the
seams of story.
With the giant cluster fuck of hit men
struggling to be the first in line to grab the jewel of the underground
crime circuit, “Smokin’ Aces” just goes balls to wall as an
unpredictable action byproduct featuring a great all-star cast. Two mob
bosses are planning to take the heart of a famous magician, and are
offering up quite a reward, word gets out, and we’re introduced to
almost five groups of hit men vying for the goal, including two police
men trying to get to him before anyone else does.
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Ryan Reynolds, a man I’m very much a fan of,
holds up well against the rest of the cast as a young
officer racing to Vegas with his partner Carruthers (Ray
Liotta, stealing scenes), as we’re introduced to characters,
and a particular catch to the story.
You can almost sense Carnahan is
going for a hook right from the beginning; everything is
never as it seems from minute one, and we’re often times led
down an elaborate story with plot twists at every corner. |
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Once Carnahan pulls down the veil, it’s a
rather surprising little twist that paves “Smokin’ Aces” as a film
that’s much more complicated than it looks. There’s also the colorful
characters that keep this film a pure grab bag of laughs, with a
psychotic hillbilly gang of assassins, two feminist hired killers played
by Alicia Keys who is rather strong in this role, only to name a few,
and like many other action films of this ilk, “Smokin’ Aces” is much
more about the action than the characterization. Bullets propel folks
feet away, people survive skirmishes no one else could, and Carnahan
keeps the pacing balanced enough to never bore audiences. The pitch to
“Smokin’ Aces” is on the personalities within the cast, and not so much
pure characterization; if you’re not versed in trash neo-grind house
cinema, you will not enjoy this. I however, had a blast.
One of the more noticeable caveats of
“Smokin’ Aces” is the sheer over the top performance of Andy Garcia, as
a man who can never seem to get his accent straight. Is he Hispanic, is
he Southern, is he a Hispanic Southern? I could never really know, and
personally neither did he. Beyond that, Carnahan anxiously tries to add
emotion to the back stories of our characters and their tragic endings,
and can never accomplish that level of sentiment, as hard as he tries.
It’s almost asking too much for Carnahan to build basic types, and
provide almost non-stop action, and then try to gauge our emotions by
forcing tragic endings, and tear jerking moments. All of which fail,
sadly.
Whether it deserves credit for being so over
the top or not, “Smokin’ Aces” is a beautiful piece of action trash
cinema that I love. It’s the type of movie that you can watch alongside
“Domino” and have a blast with. A great ensemble cast, along with
excellent direction makes this a gem worth the watch.
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