Review of Smokin' Aces (2006) by Tom V — 04 Jun 2011

Review circa 2007 - a disagreement between selves! See the comment for an alternative perspective!

I heard this film of being accused of "Tarintino-esque" affection. What does that even mean? It's as if anything remotely similar to the ultra-violence genre is automatically lumped into his oeuvre. A pretty narrow minded view. I don't mind if this film is compared to such, but to say that anything similar is imitation is ludicrous. A whole genre of films would disappear.

Smokin' Aces certainly featured actors aplenty. All over the place. I always rate Andy Garcia and Ray Liotta so it was great to see them in action. Ben Affleck was also half decent, Martin Henderson was great to see, Jason Bateman had a nice cameo, they had the Mob Boss from The Sopranos, the guy from Lost, and Alicia Keys was quite watchable. Only let down by Ryan Reynolds, who is a vacuum of mediocrity. Thankfully, he played a small part, although he was also the central protagonist of the film.

I thought the first shoot-out is quite wonderful. Part of you senses that something awful is coming but the other part suggests these characters can't be killed off so soon as they have been helping to guide the story up to this point. I love the way the cars window was darkened to an unbelievable pitch-black form before the gunfire occurred. Creepy.

I also thought the framing story was a nice touch. It married the awe and wonder of the old gang enigma with modern setting. Not easily done and very rare. The only problem with the framing story was that it didn't really lend itself to having enough punch. Still the potential was there and it did cause me to think how the Mafia was undermined and deconstructed quite quickly when the F.B.I. finally turned their attention their way.

The film also manages to unravel quite well. This is actually an achievement in itself considering how many characters stories we are forced to follow. They all link up quite well and arrive at resolutions that are acceptable. The plot though, does dictate the actions of the characters. For example, a white supremacist is kept alive for the sole reason of being a revenge killing by at the hands of Martin Henderson. It's not clumsy writing, it just shows how this film is aiming for a more visceral style than anything cerebral. That said, the Swede was a fantastic red herring. I was constantly apprehensive about his appearance.

The only things that didn't sit well were the kung-fu kid and the nihilistic ending. The kung-fu kid was interesting, I will give him that, but he served little purpose and seemed like a on-set in-joke. I mean, fair enough if the characters involved with the central plot are insane, but this kid was on the outskirts of this. Any appeal he had seemed geared more towards the lowest common denominator.

And the nihilistic ending. Pure nihilism. The film did draw things together but it was pretty perfunctory after the main battle. You would have expected Ryan Reynolds' adrenaline to stop pumping by the time he reached the hospital. But no. The writers decided to go with a pretty silly final minute which wasn't really as dramatic as the music cared for, nor required. They decided that everything had to be destroyed. And for good measure a sequence explaining everything had been thrown in.

Finally, what was up with the credits? It's as if the film morphed into a Dick Tracey type of image. I know some of the film can be considered to have comic-book sentiments but it was shot in a realistic type of way with few flashy shots. Weird and out of place.