By Claudia Puig, USA TODAY
Smokin' Aces suffers from desperate wannabe syndrome. It wants to be a Tarantino-esque dark comedy about gun-slinging, substance-abusing lowlifes. But instead it's a convoluted, slap-happy, humorless bloodfest. Director Joe Carnahan might be more aptly renamed Joe Carnage-han.
This mess of a movie somehow drew an intriguing ensemble cast, many of whom play characters with a common goal: to murder Buddy "Aces" Israel, a sleazy magician with Mob ties, played by Jeremy Piven. Having run afoul of the Mob chief, Aces had agreed to turn state's witness against the Vegas Mob and flees to the more scenic gambling town of Lake Tahoe.
Among the few who don't want to annihilate the magician is a pair of FBI agents (Ryan Reynolds and Ray Liotta) dispatched by the FBI deputy director (Andy Garcia) to keep him in protective custody. Fat chance.
There are rumors of a big payday for smoking Aces, so the assignment attracts a motley crew of psychos, ex-cons, thugs and mercenaries, all racing to be the first to rub out the slimy magic man.
Unfortunately, none of them is anywhere near funny, as is the intent. The most obnoxious of them all (and that's a tough call) is a trio of neo-Nazis known as the Tremor Brothers (Chris Pine, Kevin Durand and Maury Sterling). Their combined IQ is probably right around 90. We don't hear their names mentioned much, but their monikers provide the most comical gag. Two are named Darwin and Jeeves.
Things don't go as expected for either the assassins or the FBI, and all manner of mayhem and mutilation occurs. Aces has a more complicated predicament than we're led to believe, but by the time we learn what it is, we don't care.
The film tries to be stylish and slick, but is mostly just nasty and blood-drenched.
Piven, so funny in other film roles and on TV's Entourage, overdoes it here, and extended scenes of his debauchery grow excessive and thuddingly dull.
Indeed, the movie's best asset — its cool roster of stars — is wasted in this pointless exercise with gaping plot holes as big as Vegas'
2 comments:
"Director Joe Carnahan might be more aptly renamed Joe Carnage-han."
That's the kind of A-list wit I've come to expect from USA Today.
"The film tries to be stylish and slick, but is mostly just nasty and blood-drenched."
I'm confused, wasn't this meant to be a negative review?
All right, maybe the movie does suck. But this reviewer smacks of "don't get it," despite mentioning Tarantino.
Yeah, I'm still on board, the commercials look schweeeeeet!
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