4/5 Sure it won't win any awards, but it was still fun to watch.
  by Peter Shermeta (Rochester, MI)
Believe it or not, this movie was actually relatively entertaining. Even when some pretty small parts are involved, I am always interested in seeing a movie with a cast like this. Let me list a few people who made appearances in Smokin' Aces: Ryan Reynolds, Ray Liotta, Jeremy Piven, Ben Affleck, Peter Berg, Common, Andy Garcia, Alicia Keys, "that girl from Hustle & Flow," Jason Bateman and Matthew Fox.

The movie was completely ridiculous. Ryan Reynolds started to go a little overboard at the end, but other than that the movie does not take itself seriously at all. If you try to take this movie seriously, you will be grossly disappointed. Smokin' Aces combined just about every possible stereotype into a murder-for-hire movie, but did it to be satirical and did not come across as cliché. It was so ridiculous, in fact, that I considered it almost on par with a Quentin Tarantino flick.

Call me crazy, but I liked Smokin' Aces...for what it was. I was looking for an off-the-wall, shoot-'em-up, action movie and that is exactly what I got. I was even impressed with the creativity behind the story (though the end was somewhat of a let down).


4/5 It is what it is -- a great-looking, trippy action flick
  by Peace Brotha (Ohio, United States)
Smokin Aces is one of the best eye candy films I have seen in years.

It is full of interesting camera angles, shocks, thrills, humor and characters that you will remember. I for one appreciate the fact that almost none of the actors were cast as you'd expect. And while SA is not what I would call a retro-style film, there are more than enough nods to the 1970's that fans of that culture like me will really get a kick out of this film's style.

And WHAT a soundtrack.

Note: there are so many plots and subplots interwoven throughout SA that you will surely need to see this movie once more to catch everything, including some of the more profound statements about the darker sides of the human psyche that the director may or may not be trying to comment on.

Some of the reviewers say there's too much violence. Hello. That's what these types of movies are about. Period.

All in all, SA is a great-looking and trippy action flick that doesn't try to be something that it isn't: "deep." Don't look for Academy Award winning ANYTHING here. But be prepared for an interesting ride that you will surely want to take again, and in 20 years it will be a lot more acclaimed than it is now. Just wait and see.


3/5 Man
  by Ron (Jersey)
I really wanted this to be good. You look at the list of characters that star in this and you figure it has got to be good. I was hoping for a semi serious picture with a great story like Ocean's Eleven(the remake). Instead this was more of a Hong Kong over the top action film with buckets of bloody killings. I don't mind pictures like that, but the box said drama comedy. I'm not sure where the comedy was in the movie. The acting is fine, and there certainly was some offbeat characters. Unfortunately everything has a ton of promise, but very little hits the mark. This was decent to watch and entertaining, but I wasn't blown away like I would have hoped. Certainly worth renting, and probably a buy for a lot of people. I would watch it first rather than making a blind buy.

2/5 bang, bang, Boom, Boom...fizzle
  by Mr. Richard K. Weems (Fair Lawn, NJ USA)
I'm a big fan of gangster genre--in many ways, it seems to be one of the last vestiges of quirky character investigation left in the world of movies and media. The popularity and intrigue generated by The Sopranos, for example, shows you how much gangsters capture people's interests. And why? Maybe because they're such extraordinary personalities, characters that are dealing with the essential questions of survival and betrayal and life and death.

But nix that idea for this movie--this movie is a wannabe in gangster genre, but only seems to know the images but nothing of the substance. Wanting to soak up the cult elitism of Tarantino added to the flair of something like Snatch, this movie tries to set up a host of nasty but somehow interesting characters, as well as a little secret to try to drive the film by.

The set-up--simple. Buddy Israel, a Vegas magician turned mob boss, is turning informant, and so a million-dollar bounty has been put on his head, which catches the interest of a hitman who is also a master of disguise, as well as a pair of female gangstas, a trio of Nazi brothers, and a mysterious figure known as only The Swede (which is apprently a nickname that was never used in the hole history of the mob). But there is a stir in the FBI head office, and though three agents (including Ray Liotta) have already headed off to Israel's penthouse to protect the man.

Of course, there are other characters and turns, but they all feel a little flat during the movie, for there is little sense of character investigation and more a barrage of eccentricities with little sense of the logic behind them, and the pay-off towards the end is nothing of the sort, leading to a finale that is little more than improbable to any sense of logic. Rather than deal with the emotions of love, hatred and devotion, this movie merely mentions them to try to spice up its characters, but they are never really issues in the plot. Israel is clearly bothered by his impending move, but the reason for it is totally obfuscated until maybe the end, but even then it's not so clear. There might be a hint of romance between the two female killers, but again this is there just to make them a little more quirky rather than truly interesting characters.

Overall, a disappointment. Flash and fire, but little interest.


1/5 Unbelievable BOMB!
  by The Movie Man (Maywood, New Jersey USA)
If you took a blender and added parts of "Pulp Fiction," "Kill Bill," and "The Usual Suspects," you would come up with "Smokin' Aces," a movie illustrating how an ambitious director copies cinematic style, plots, and characters in an attempt to duplicate the success of earlier movies.
The plot of "Smokin' Aces" is simple: Buddy "Aces" Israel (Jeremy Piven), a longtime associate of mob boss Primo Sparazza (Joseph Ruskin), has agreed to turn state's evidence to save his own skin by testifying that Sparazza has been responsible for over 130 contract murders. When the mob learns of this betrayal, they put a one-million-dollar bounty on Aces' head. They don't care who kills him, just as long as the deed is accomplished quickly. Knowing he is a marked man, Aces has sequestered himself in a heavily guarded Lake Tahoe suite.
The potential assassins include partners Georgia Sykes (Alicia Keys) and sniper Sharice Watters (Tarajii Henson); a psychopathic trio of neo-Nazi inbreeds known as the Tremor brothers (Chris Pine, Kevin Durand, Maury Serling); and two international hit men, torture specialist Pasquale Acosta (Nestor Carbonell) and master of disguise Lazlo Soot (Tommy Flanagan).
Complicating matters, Vegas bail bondsman Jack Dupree (Ben Affleck) is hired by attorney "Rip" Reed (Jason Bateman) to find the bail-jumping Aces before he gets handed over to the F.B.I.
F.B.I. Deputy Director Stanley Locke (Andy Garcia) has dispatched his top agent, Richard Messner (Ryan Reynolds), his veteran partner, Donald Carruthers (Ray Liotta), and their team to the Tahoe hotel to protect Aces.
The film switches around, tracing the convergence of the bevy of assassins on the fortress-like suite, Dupree and his team's plan to "bring in" Aces, and the F.B.I. agents' attempt to defend the informant.
If you're lost by now, you should be. The film tosses a huge number of characters out in relatively short order, expecting the viewer to keep track of who's who, who's doing what, and whom to root for. And that is Problem #1. Things jump around so quickly that it's hard to identify with anyone, and everyone -- with the exception of the F.B.I. agents -- seems scurrilous, reprehensible or, at best, sleazy. Aces himself is the vilest character in the picture. As portrayed by Piven, he is a coked-up martinet barking out orders to his flunkies as practically every hit man and woman worth the name is closing in. We don't like him. Should we be in his corner or that of the professional murderers out to off him?
What is most disappointing about "Smokin' Aces" is the waste of top talent. The cast is impressive, and many actors turn in fine performances. Liotta, Bateman, and Keys, in particular, stand out, but in this mess of a movie, their work cannot be fully appreciated.
Writer/director Joe Carnahan is obviously a fan of cult action cinema, since he cribs from nearly every successful offbeat action drama of the last ten years. Every few minutes, the viewer is reminded of a scene or a character or a plot turn in a previous film. It gets to the point that it becomes more interesting to identify movie references than to get involved with the story at hand. Carnahan has an obvious appreciation of action movies, but his work in "Smokin' Aces" comes off as failed parody.
"Smokin' Aces" is extremely violent, fully meriting its R rating. But this is the worst kind of violence. It is exploitative. Rather than the violence serving the plot, it appears the plot was constructed around set pieces of extreme violence. As in "Hamlet," there will be a lot of dead bodies at the end. But there will be little audience sympathy for the deceased. "Smokin' Aces" makes you appreciate all the more those films with violence -- such as "The Departed" and "Blood Diamond" -- that have substance and allow the viewer to feel something for the characters.
This is a short-cut movie, the worst kind. It makes a mad dash to the action stuff at the expense of characterization, assuming the viewer will be swept along in the film's fast pace. Don't be fooled. "Smokin' Aces" is pedestrian movie making.