Smokin' Aces
Smokin' Aces
R | 09 December 2006 (USA)
Smokin' Aces Trailers

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.

Reviews
Supelice Dreadfully Boring
SpecialsTarget Disturbing yet enthralling
Inadvands Boring, over-political, tech fuzed mess
FrogGlace In other words,this film is a surreal ride.
tdrish I had very high expectations for this. The sad part is, is that I can count numerous reasons why this movie passes with flying colors. The intensity, the raw energy, the action sequences...all spot on! Choreography was awesome! Acting was solid. I can go on and on about all the good stuff, however, when it comes to the "story line" for this mess, it bogs it all down. ALL DOWN! And that's sad. Why does the story have to suffer? Well. I think the film makers thought they could make a great movie by over stuffing the hell out of it with a lot of heart pounding action, and who cares about the story, right? If that philosophy were true, Showgirls would have been the greatest movie on earth, now wouldn't it have been. Sadly, we have to turn into reality, and put the fantasy thoughts on the back burner. Sure, this was a successful film for its genre. It doesn't excuse the fact that it was a mad, twisted mess for a film. Buddy has managed to piss off the mob boss for turning in evidence to the state. In response to this, the boss has set out several hit men to erase Buddy off all maps once and for all. Several hit men. Several! Even hit women. There's only one reward. These hit men are not going to be in any mood to share it. Will they turn against each other? I think you know the answer to that. With that, we set up 90 percent of what Smokin Aces is all about...a whole lot of action, boiling down to a whole lot of nothing. These hitmen are ruthless. Cold hearted. Stone cold, cold hearted. And how will it all end? You'll have to watch to find out, some may be let down by how it all ends. I think it's anything but predictable. Do I recommend it? I do not. Even though most may be entertained by it, I do not think this is anything to write home about. Bottom line: Smokin Aces is just too much smoke, and not enough ace!
ahmmed_elsaid Don't waste your time watching trash movies like that one . you better go find something useful
ereinion This movie looks "cool" and "smokin'" as its title says, but the first hint that it's not so good is the fact that non-actress Alicia Keys is one of the main stars. And she simply can't act. She does a terrible job, even though some may think she doesn't, but it's obvious, sometimes painfully obvious, that she can't act and is not a real actress. Like in the scene at the elevator, when she meets the three over the top Neo-Nazi characters. Her response is so lame and she delivers it totally unconvincingly, like she doesn't quite know what to do. And its a major mistake, casting a non-actress in a LEADING role, even in an action flick. Jeremy Piven being there doesn't do enough to save this film from being just another in a long line of unoriginal movies that are clearly a rip off of Guy Ritchie's classics like Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch. And one advice to the director: adding those running name titles to introduce each major character doesn't make a movie any better! Why? Because it's already been done, to death. You had it in Faculty, those two aforementioned Ritchie films and many others.Ryan Reynolds is another reason I hate this movie, because Ryan Reynolds is the most overpaid, overrated and over-you name it in the movie industry. He simply sucks and is annoying. All this movie is made of is shootout scenes and some scenes that aim at being humorous in a rather bizarre way, like the scene with the karate boy. Vladimir Kulich, not a bad actor really, is doomed to be in second and third rate movies it seems...poor guy. And here he doesn't get more than one line even, which is totally unjust, given that he has a cool voice. Really poor and unoriginal flick, I won't even call it a film because it doesn't deserve it. Action scenes are rather well shot and that is the only treat here, along with miss Keys appearing in a short skirt. The cliché of the ending only underlines the fact that this is a turkey. 3 out of 10
SnoopyStyle FBI Deputy Director Stanley Locke (Andy Garcia), agents Richard Messner (Ryan Reynolds) and Donald Carruthers (Ray Liotta) are using Las Vegas magician wannabe gangster Buddy "Aces" Israel (Jeremy Piven) to bring down the last mob boss Primo Sparazza (Joseph Ruskin). Sparazza has issued a $1 million bounty on Israel. This brings in contract killers Lazlo Soot (Tommy Flanagan), Sharice Watters (Taraji P. Henson) and Georgia Sykes (Alicia Keys), Pasquale Acosta (Nestor Carbonell), and neo-Nazis Darwin (Chris Pine), Jeeves (Kevin Durand) and Lester (Maury Sterling). Bail bondsmen Jack Dupree (Ben Affleck), Pete Deeks (Peter Berg) and Hollis Elmore (Martin Henderson) hired by sleazy lawyer Rip Reed (Jason Bateman) who wants him back.This is a massive mess of crazy characters in a stylized gangster movie. It's nearly impossible to connect with any of the characters. The writing is all style and nothing too sharp. There are some crazy fun action as long as one can maintain attention long enough to see them.