Review of Smokin' Aces (2006) by Jonathans. — 19 Dec 2007

It's sad when so many people all think that the plot in this was confusing. There weren't really that many characters in total, the plot lines didn't really intersect much until the shoot-outs, and the plot's almost handed to you on a platter in the beginning.

I watched this movie with the sole purpose to fill a brief need for brainless action, and I was mostly fulfilled. Carnahan's enthusiasm is welcome, but doesn't lend too much to the film in the end-- especially when his script is somewhat confused on what it wants to be, or which characters to sympathize with.

A good example of this: we go through most of the movie with the assassins and the climax involves the multiple shoot-outs with the aforementioned-- and then, somehow, by the end of the film, we're being told we need to sympathize with the FBI agent, and feel something for his decision/inner turmoil (which wasn't done very well, so we didn't exactly care too much at all what he did, more or less about the "twist").

There were some parts where I thought "Ok, that was cool."-- such as the sniper scene on the seventh floor. But Israel (the character, not the country obviously), didn't really have much of a role in the film, except mope and get high; disappointing, since I was expecting it to be more along the lines that he would use some sort of magic trick or illusions to stay alive from the attacks or such-- why not? The film was already pretty over-the-top.

But unlike Shoot 'Em Up, another high-octane action flick that was released around the same time (but was actually pretty entertaining), Smokin' Aces tries to hard to make something of plot and characters-- something that, in all honesty, weren't handled nearly well enough to warrant any empathy from the audience.

If it were, as Shoot Em' Up did, to just say heck with plot, let's make this almost a parody of the genre by having about .5% of a plot-- that would have been much better. So other than Carnahan's punchy direction and a few good action sequences, this film doesn't have too much going for it.

At least it's better than Domino (another multiple assassin/mobster movie)-- that movie was just exceedingly terrible. Smokin' Aces: reccommended for mindless movie night, or if you just want a brief action fix.