Smokin' Aces

2006

Action / Comedy / Crime / Drama / Thriller

109
IMDb Rating 6.6/10 10 151657 151.7K

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Plot summary

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.


Uploaded by: OTTO
February 12, 2024 at 11:10 AM

Director

Top cast

Ryan Reynolds as Richard Messner
Ben Affleck as Jack Dupree
Jason Bateman as Rupert 'Rip' Reed
Andy Garcia as Stanley Locke
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814.88 MB
1280*720
English 2.0
R
23.976 fps
1 hr 48 min
Seeds 30
2.01 GB
1920*816
English 5.1
R
23.976 fps
1 hr 48 min
Seeds 59
5.29 GB
3840*1632
English 5.1
R
23.976 fps
1 hr 48 min
Seeds 36

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by IonicBreezeMachine 4 / 10

Joe Carnahan does Guy Ritchie by way of Usual Suspects and fails hard

Buddy "Aces" Israel is a second rate Las Vegas magician/wannabe mobster who knows the ins and outs the mob. After he bites off more than he can chew he organizes an immunity deal in exchange for divulging the ins and outs of his knowledge of the mob. His actions attract the attention of bounty hunters, assassins, rampaging neo nazis, and the FBI leading to a tangled mess of complications in and around his safe house at a lake Tahoe hotel/casino.

The movie has a great cast with Ryan Reynolds, Ray Liotta, Ben Affleck, Chris Pine (in one of his earlier roles), Jason Bateman, and too many others to name and all of them give good performances. There's clear chemistry between actors such as Taraji P. Henson and Alicia Keyes or Ryan Reynolds and Ray Liotta, and their performances are clearly committed and energized. It's just a shame it's in service of a script that is muddled, busy, confusing, and tone deaf and direction that is overly frenetic and unfocused.

Smokin' Aces makes a bad impression from the get go as the opening 20 minutes is a near non stop barrage of exposition clumsily conveyed via FBI audio surveillance or among different sets of characters who we know nothing about so Carnahan places title cards over them with their name and occupation, not that it'll do much good because you'll forget who they are minutes after introduction. The movie as it starts seems like it's trying to be a Guy Ritchie style crime comedy like Snatch or Lock, Stock, Two Smoking Barrels, but it's never as funny as it thinks it is and most of its "humorous" moments feel more awkward than funny. Some of the highlights include an A.D.D. middle schooler in a gi speaking gangsta while doing karate and sporting an erection, and another involves Chris Pine as a neo nazi killing someone then making their mouth move up and down like a puppet. On occasion the ad libbing between Reynolds and Liotta would get a chuckle, and Taraji P. Henson has some reasonably funny lines here and there, but most of the film consists of mind numbing violence and drunken debauchery in Buddy Israel's safehouse that is more obnoxious than funny.

To add insult to injury the movie makes an abrupt tonal shift about half way through the film and decides it wants to be taken seriously. The movie that was trying to make you laugh and failing miserably is now going to try and pull a The Usual Suspects on you because it can't tell the difference between "messy" and "complex". That's not to say this kind of movie can't have a twisty narrative, the cult film Suicide Kings showed that quite effectively, but Smokin' Aces is not only not as funny as Suicide Kings, it's also less clever and doesn't know it.

Smokin' Aces is an awful movie with good performances. It's script is crass and juvenile with jarring tonal shifts, and it's not clever enough to justify its twists nor is it funny enough to excuse its overstuffed narrative. This is a bad movie that shamelessly steals from better movies.Joe Carnahan does tries to do The Usual Suspects by way of Guy Ritchie and stumbles hard

Reviewed by poolandrews 5 / 10

I can see why some may like it but I didn't think it was anything more than average.

Smokin' Aces starts as mob boss Primo Sparazza (Joseph Ruskin) puts a hit out on Las Vegas magician turned state informant Buddy 'Aces' Israel (Jeremy Piven) with instructions to cut out & return his heart. FBI agent Donald Carruthers (Ray Liotta) & his partner Richard Messner (Ryan Reynolds) are assigned to go to Lake Taho where Israel is hiding in the penthouse of the Newton Hotel, the race is on between various freelance assassins seeking the one million payout, bondsman Jack Dupree (Ben Affleck) after Israel for a skipped bond reward & the FBI as to who gets to Israel first. As people die it becomes clear to agent Messner that there is much more going on than a simple witness protection case...

This American, British & French co-production was directed by Joe Carnahan & to me is a British gangster flick wannabe, Smokin' Aces felt like an attempt to make a Guy Ritchie flick the US & while it's not a complete loss I must admit I didn't like it as much as many seem to. I found the script unnecessarily complicated, not complicated because I couldn't follow or understand it but complicated because at heart Smokin' Aces is a pretty simple film. A guy named Buddy 'Aces' Israel who has mixed with the wrong people wants to turn witness for the FBI & as such it's straight race between the good guy's & bad guy's to who gets to him first, that's really all there is too it & the numerous subplots & character's just slow things down & get in the way. I wouldn't mind so much if Smokin' Aces had the humour & twist's of a Guy Ritchie flick but they don't, in fact I was quite surprised at how serious Smokin' Aces takes itself. The amount of character's is another problem, there are too many & there are too many unlikable ones particularly that awful black woman with the sniper rifle. There's a lot of early exposition that bogs the film down & it's not always clear who or what is being spoken about, the twist ending isn't that great with a rather lame surprise & like the FBI & hospital would leave those two alone in a room together unguarded. At over an hour & forty minutes Smokin' Aces is quite long with only one big action scene & even that is just a shoot-out, the dialogue isn't as sharp or cool or referential or quotable as say a Quinten Tarintino or Guy Ritchie gangster flick (you know the ones I mean) & I simply didn't care for anyone or anything on screen at any time.

There are a few really silly over the top scenes & character's like the three Tremor brother's who surely wouldn't be that hard to track down & find if you were the police? The scene inside the house with the kid & Granny are also silly & feel out of place. The attitude of just about every character here towards everyone else is sheer callousness, even Agent Messner when all those FBI guy's get shot the only one he seem bothered about & tries to save is his partner. There's no soul or heart in Smokin' Aces & I found it hard to like & therefore care about anyone. Surprisingly short on action there's one big shoot-out otherwise it's fairly low key stuff & the film relies more on it's over complicated plot. As an action film there's not enough here & as a thriller it ties itself up in knots.

With a supposed budget of about $17,000,000 this was actually filmed in Lake Tahoe & Las Vegas. It looks nice enough the who feel of the film again tries to duplicate a Guy Ritchie flick with speed-ups, slow motions, frame skipping, split screen, people talking over other scenes, flashback revelations, impossible camera movements & the whole filming style just screams British gangster thriller. There's a decent cast here with singers Alicia Keys & Common making their acting debuts.

Smokin' Aces is a film I didn't like that much, sure it tells a story & it has a bit of style but it doesn't add up to much & the lack of action & dialogue heavy exposition slow it down too much too often. Followed by the direct to video sequel Smokin' Aces 2: Assassins' Ball (2010) which I have yet to see.

Reviewed by boblipton 6 / 10

Do People Actually Like This?

It's a typically muddled Joe Carnahan movie in which people are freely shot with what the film maker imagines is great style.

A Vegas entertainer is working with the FBI to bring down the last of the Mafia mob bosses, but it's by no means a straightforward story, except for the large amount of stage blood that is spattered around. There's no real character to any of the characters, just a convoluted conspiracy amidst large amounts of bloodshed and shattered glass in a Vegas hotel.

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