it was a night that was supposed to be spent doing laundry and working out, so pretty much the opposite of fun. instead, it turned into a couple of drinks and a night at the movies.
at first, i had no desire to see “smokin aces”. then i got to reading some viewer reviews on cinema whatever dot blah and it seems like a few people were saying it was actually pretty good, so starr and i decided to go check it out.
knowing full well that we weren’t going to see an future oscar winner and that it even had ben affleck in it, we knew we would more then likely need some drinks for this one. a couple of drinks and a slim doobie later, we headed to the theatre to check out the flick.
first of all, you should know what your going to get when you decide to watch this movie. yes, it is a well worn plot based on previous tarentino entries of violence and chuckles, and yes “smokin aces” does so without apology but instead of thinking of it as a rip off of the great directors past flicks, consider it an homage to his influential style. joe carnahan, director of the amazing cop film narc, pulls of stylish violence and laughs without the same intensity as tarentino but still manages to direct an engaging film with only a few lagging moments and weak plot devices.
the fantastic jeremy piven plays vegas magician buddy isreal. isreal has strong mob connections and he’s ready to roll over on the entire cosa nostra in an attempt to escape his own criminal past. ryan reynolds and ray liotta are two f.b.i. agents who have been assigned to travel to lake tahoe, where isreal is hiding out in a penthouse of giant hotel, and gather up the snitch. the catch is that mob boss primo sparazza has ordered a million dollar hit on isreal, and the usual gang of tarentino-like odd jobs are all in the hunt to finish off isreal and collect the the lucrative “kitty”. the more famous of the odd jobs are affleck, keyes, common, and the rest are rounded out by a few unknown character actors. so it all goes down in beautiful tahoe and man is it bloody and bullet riddled.
this is not a an intelligent film, or at least, it trys not be, and a funny thing happens as the movie rolls along; a few of the performances really start to shine.
going into this film i pretty much assumed that the performances by keyes, affleck, and common were going to be pretty weak, yet all three pulled off their characters with flair and creativity. affleck was funny as a bail-bondsman with the info. common was believable as isreal’s betrayed hitman, and keyes was……well………she was smokin hot and only had a few lines, and she nailed em , so good on her.
the real surprises in “aces”, however, came from the acting talents of jason bateman and ryan reynolds.
the first surprise was from jason bateman. he was by far the funniest part of the movie and i found myself really wishing that he had some more screen time in “aces”. his portrayal of lawyer rip reed was right from the pages of fellow “arrested development” castmate henry winkler’s lawyer barry zuckercorn in the aforementioned show. it really makes you wish that bateman was cast in way more movies. my favorite quote from the entire film was bateman’s “seems like that guy is giving me the hairy eye. is he cool?”
the second surprise was from ryan reynolds. usually when reynolds tries to do serious, all i’m thinking is van wilder in drama class. yet, in ”aces”, reynolds really comes across as decent as the f.b.i. agent lost in the supreme violence of the hotel hit and emerges as the true star of this film. hopefully, he can keep it up and get past the reviewers that tend to carve his performances.
i think it would be unfair for me to finish of this review and not mention the talented performance of jeremy piven as buddy isreal. all though it isn’t that far from the sneaky asshole rat that piven plays so well, his portrayal of isreal does have a few moments where you actually feel bad for this rat bastard. it takes real skill to make you feel bad for a snitch and he does it with ease. hopefully pivens star can keep rising and he can go back to those moments and expand on them in future roles, because he really is a whole lot better then just a snaky asshole.
overall, i will say that both starr and i were pleasantly surprised with “smokin aces” and it did entertain for the time it was on screen. the plot was not very heavy and the twists you could see coming, but all in all it was a popcorn movie peppered with a few good performances, and that isn’t too bad for me. i did noticethat alot of reviews felt that film had a disappointing ending but i felt that ending fit the movie and that it tied things up nicely in a movie polluted with craziness and chaos.
although it wasn’t a full house, “smokin aces” was definitely a well played hand.
