Smokin' Aces (R)
Scott:
Scott: Tonight I am reviewing Smokin’ Aces
a movie about a Las Vegas snitch who is about to give up all of his Mob connections. Needless to say, the mob is not very happy with his idea.
Scott: What did I think about it?
I liked it. I seem to like the movies with a lot of shooting and violence. The scary movies don’t do anything for me, but movies like this, Mean Guns or True Romance entertain me.
Jeremy Piven stars as Buddy Israel, a Las Vegas performer that decided it would be more fun to be in the mob than perform card tricks. You see flashbacks of him becoming the mob type guy he is now. I didn’t see him as a mob character really; he never has the aura you associate with a Mob guy.
I have been a fan of Piven since Cupid back in the late 90’s. I am also a fan of his Ari Gold character in Entourage. I really enjoyed him in this movie. I thought he played the part well. On a side note, I saw a couple skits with him on SNL last weekend. It was refreshing to see an actor not reading off the cue cards through every skit.
As the movie opens, we learn that there is a contract out on Israel for one million dollars. The FBI agents Donald Carruthers (Ray Liotta) and Richard Messner (Ryan Reynolds) speculate, rightly so, that this is going to bring hitmen from all over to Vegas to kill Israel.
Interesting tidbit on Liotta, his best friend is Josh Taylor who starred in Hogan’s Family with Jason Bateman. Bateman stars in this film alongside Liotta.
Later, we get a bit of a montage of all of the other hired killers out to collect the money, each more cruel and scary than the last.
The first batch is a trio we meet led by Jack Dupree (Ben Affleck). He is a bail bondsman out to get Israel and bring him back to the Feds. He hooks up with a couple of ex-cops; Hollis Elmore (Martin Henderson) and “Pistol” Pete Deeks (Peter Berg). Before I saw the movie I heard Affleck was the star. He isn’t. He is only important in the beginning.
Jason Bateman makes the most of another small appearance in a movie with his character Rip Reed. His scenes are some of the funniest of the movies and the dialog in those scenes is worth listening to closely.
Pasquale Acosta "S.A. Gerald Diego" (Nestor Carbonnel) and Lazlo Soot (Tommy Flanagan) are the two top killers after Israel. Both are really good at what they do, as the montage shows. There is also the Tremor trio of hired guns; Darwin (Chris Pine), Jeeves (Kevin Durand) and Lester Tremor (Maury Sterling). These guys seem to enjoy killing for the sake of killing, the money they get is just a bonus. The two killers everyone will be most interested in are Georgia Sykes (Alicia Keys) and Sharice Watters (Taraji P. Henson).
This is Keys first movie and while she didn’t blow me away, I was happy with her performance. She played the part well and only looked stiff a couple times. I think she has a good career ahead of her if she chooses to take it.
Scott: How do I rate this movie?
I give it a 3.5 overall and a 3.5 for action/drama. It had some funny moments too. If you are looking for a fun movie that isn’t too terribly complex, then I would suggest checking this out.
