Sunday, February 04, 2007
Movie Reviews: SMOKIN' ACES
In theaters
SMOKIN' ACES
Buddy "Aces" Israel (Jeremy Piven) is a small-time Las Vegas magician who suddenly becomes very popular after ratting out his boss, who has ties to the mob, to the FBI. After the Feds shuttle Aces off to Lake Tahoe for safekeeping, an army of assassins swarms the tiny resort town looking to cash in on a prize hit.
Cast Ben Affleck, Jason Bateman, Peter Berg, Brian Bloom, Sharon Bruneau, Common (more)
Director(s) Joe Carnahan
Status In theaters (wide)
Genre(s) Drama
Release Date Jan. 26, 2007
MPAA Rating R - for strong bloody violence, pervasive language, some nudity and drug use.
Review:
Smokin' Aces is a mess of a movie. It has some interesting ideas and characters percolating under its skin but Joe Carnahan never seems too concerned with exploring them in anything less than a superficial fashion. This movie is directed with a frenetic pace but in a weird way the movie doesn't seem to move very quickly. This movie seems to be trying too hard to be Tarantino-like and its script is filled with tons of wanna be cool dialogue that just doesn't quite hit its mark. Character development is at a premium here. We get little to zero information about most of the characters and their motivations. The result is these zany psychotic characters come off as paper cut outs. The acting here is decent but fairly forgettable, the most memorable performance is from Jason Bateman who is in on screen for about 5 minutes at most. Overall, this movie is a garbled mess that could have been much better.
D+
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