Review of Smokin' Aces (2006) by Amoviecritic — 10 Jun 2007

Smokin Aces; C+ What a rush. This movie starts out fast and just never stops. It's shot in a very interesting, almost graphic-novel style, it's deliberately over-the-top, it's very funny, and doesn't take itself seriously.

Amazing music, too. It's unfortunately WAY too hard to follow. There's tons and tons of characters (a whose-who of celebrities) and some just don't seem fleshed out enough. At times I was kind of clueless as to what was going on.

I think the movie really could have used some "down time" to explain the situation a bit more clearly. Neat plot twist at the end, though. And Jeremy Piven as Buddy Israel offers one hell of an amazing performance.

Ben Affleck also (surprisingly) makes a good impression here, even though his role in the movie is a lot smaller than you'd think. Alicia Keys is pretty awesome as well. Overall....maybe worth a rental for a bizarre, funny rush but then again, if you're not a fan of kinetic action, skip it.

The action never stops. And it's pretty hard to follow.