Available at Amazon.com
Writer/Director:
Joe Carnahan
Cast:
Jeremy Piven .Buddy Aces’ Israel
Ryan Reynolds .Richard Messner
Ray Liotta .Donald Caruthers
Andy Garcia .Stanley Locke
Alicia Keys .Georgia Sykes
Common .Sir Ivy
Ben Affleck .Jack Dupree
Jason Bateman .Rip Reed
Peter Berg .’Pistol’ Pete Deeks
Universal Pictures presents Smokin’ Aces. Running time: 108 minutes. Rated R (for strong bloody violence, pervasive language, some nudity and drug use). Now available on DVD.
A few days before Smokin’ Aces opened in theaters I finished reading a copy of Duane Swierczynski’s (yeah, just try to pronounce that correctly) The Wheelman. And, as I watched the movie days later, I found myself drawing comparisons between the two. Granted, the titular character from Swierczynski’s novel — an Irish mute/getaway driver named Lennon — failed to make an appearance, both the novel and Joe Carnahan’s film move at a breakneck pace. And when I mean breakneck, I mean break-neck.
Jeremy Piven, the self-proclaimed man of Hollywood on HBO’s Entourage, is now a washed-up Las Vegas lounge act named Buddy “Aces” Israel. He is an illusionist who paints himself as a wannabe gangster. Which is troubling, as his kingdom is a penthouse suite at a Lake Tahoe resort with an ample amount of cocaine and round-the-clock hookers. Must be sad, knowing that his first, and probably only lesson in Wiseguy 101 was Scarface playing on a constant loop. Though, the same could be said for director Carnahan; his film is one of spare parts. Tarantino’s pulp meets Guy Ritchie’s energy, with a few Trainspotting would-be rejects thrown into the mix. The result is not one of failure, despite not bringing anything new to the table.
Smokin’ Aces is a success because it doesn’t try to be anything more than it already is: mindless fun. Because, when you have guns with plenty of ammo what better time to misplace your thinking cap.
Mixed up with the Mob and running afoul with a local boss, Israel wants out. He’ll give state’s evidence to the FBI in exchange for protection. But the million-dollar price on his head is a wealthy proposition, a proposition worth the attention of more than a few contract killers and freelancers. Among those wanting the bounty is the feminine duo of R&B songstress Alicia Keyes and Hustle and Flow‘s Taraji P. Henson; a trio of bounty hunters (Peter Berg, Martin Henderson and Ben Affleck — milking his facial hair for all its worth); and federal agents. Even Neo-Nazis, known collectively as the Tremor Brothers, want a piece of the action.
Piven’s character is the center of attention, but he is far from the protagonist. In an ensemble overloaded with villains, it’s hard to find a clear-cut hero. Drawing the shortest straws for the hero angle would be Ryan Reynolds and Ray Liotta; the two FBI agents assigned the task of protecting the rat, uh, washed-up magician from the mob — the same mob that instituted the bounty on Israel’s head. Never did they expect a cavalcade of characters to lay siege to the Lake Tahoe resort, and provide plenty of whiz-bang gunplay, where the end result is a pile of bullet-ridden bodies. And all this because one guy thought he had the stones to be a gangster. Yeesh.
For a movie loaded with sociopaths, misfits and other carnival attractions, I was amazed at the humor interjected. It’s as if Joe Carnahan is jokingly giving us the “wink and the gun”, reassuring us that none of this is to be taken seriously. While his career is on the upswing, Jason Bateman appears in a short, but scene-stealing performance as mob lawyer Rupert Reed. His antics are totally manic, totally over-the-top. Then there are the Tremor Brothers. A few sentences can’t begin to describe their lunacy. Just imagine the baddies in the Coen Brothers’ Big Lebowski with the arsenal of a small militia. Oh yeah, a chainsaw too. Ben Affleck, while window dressing to many, shows that he can be quite the ventriloquist — the dummy, not the performer. Oops, I think I revealed too much.
This brutal, shoot ’em up thriller has everything going for it, until the final act. Ryan Reynolds, once regulated to lightweight comedies, is anything but funny as FBI agent Richard Messner. In the Bureau they teach cadets to keep a level head, and to not act in the heat of the moment. But after the mayhem he does something so out of leftfield it will make you question, “What was Carnahan thinking?” The ending works for me, as I have read plenty of crime novels where such an ending leaves you with an empty feeling, a feeling where it felt like one chapter too many.
Joe Carnahan must have a love for alcoholic drinks, why his Smokin’ Aces is a carnage-filled cocktail with one part tongue-in-cheek humor, two parts violence and bedlam, with a plot twist, or two, to heighten the experience. With only two other films to his credit — Blood, Guts, Bullets and Octane (1998), and Narc (2002) — he brings the action and the laughs. Hopefully, though, it won’t be another four years before he makes another movie.
THE VIDEO
(Presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen)
With such stylized action my interpretation of the video quality is subjective at best. There’s grain and some fuzziness for certain orchestrated action montages, but the color is remarkably clear. Had I had an HD setup to view Smokin’ Aces, the picture would be terrific. As it is, it maintains just enough consistency.
THE AUDIO
(English — Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound)
The 5.1 mix is more than enough to encapsulate the various shoot em ups that take place. The dialogue is clean and clear, and moves from the center channel to side and rear speakers whenever characters move off screen; sound effects follow a similar pattern as certain gunshots and explosions emphasize where the action is occurring.
English, Spanish and French subtitles are also included for those hearing-impaired or who are multilingual viewers.
SPECIAL FEATURES
Way to go Universal, managing to give us extras to a movie that didn’t quite have legs at the box office.
Included are two commentaries. Joe Carnahan and his editor Robert Frazen sit in for the first track. Both have a good time as they sit, have some beers, and shoot the breeze. (Please, don’t take shoot literally.) Neither goes off on little tangents, instead they manage to dissect the film scene by scene, discussing what was left on the cutting room floor and what remained in the end.
The second commentary is Carnahan with some of the stars of Smokin’ Aces: Common, Christopher Holley, and Zach Cumer. Common and Holley were a part of Buddy Israel’s entourage in the movie, while Cumer was the ADD kid encountered by one of the three bail bondsmen. It’s strange that none of the leads, the ones that yuck it up for many of the other bonus features, are here to participate. Though they may like Carnahan on the set, maybe no one wanted to be with him in an enclosed room for two hours. Perhaps it is for the best as the track is Carnahan’s personal forum to crack jokes.
Besides the commentaries, there are four deleted and extended scenes (9:35 in all). Each is pretty forgettable, but the alternate rooftop scene has one interesting development: after one of the bounty hunters confronts one of the Tremors he meets up with Agent Messner.
The outtakes (9:28) shows us that not even actors get it right on the first take. Ben Affleck may be adept at playing cards, but he sucks at pool. There is at least a minute of Ben trying to hit the 8-ball into the corner pocket, and he fails miserably over and over again. Ray Liotta is a stitch in one driving sequence where he fails to respond to Ryan Reynolds because he can’t understand a word he’s saying. Fun stuff.
The Cowboy Ending (1:00) is actually an alternate ending. And while it does not feature a standoff at high noon, or a cowboy dying with his boots on, the finale is sped up a bit but the outcome remains the same.
The Line-Up gives us short vignettes on five sets of characters: Buddy Israel, the bounty hunters, the Tremors, the agents, and the female assassins. The comments are mostly fluff, the actors talking about their characters. Especially amusing, however, are the actors who play the Tremor brothers: all their comments are in character.
The featurettes The Big Gun and Shoot Em Up: Stunts and Effects could have been edited into one feature. The first is a twelve-minute piece that acts as a video journal; writer/director Carnahan is the focus as he talks up the cast and crew, always guffawing, always having a good time. With so many flubs and mistakes it’s amazing they finished the 40-day production on time. The second feature is a five-minute look at the actors working with the guns and being introduced to squibs (the explosive blood packets FX guys attach to your body). Of particular interest is learning that Ben Affleck has neither died in a movie nor been squibbed. Well, there’s a first time for everything.
THE INSIDE PULSE
If I had told you that Smokin’ Aces was the heir apparent to shoot em ups, a descendant from the True Romance family, would you believe me? That’s left to interpretation. Joe Carnahan is Joe Six-Pack at heart, a guy who knows what he loves to see in movies: don’t be cookie-cutter, go for the jugular. This gun-blasting opus scores high on the violence meter and is pretty much tailor-made for alpha males. If you don’t fall into that category, well, either up the testosterone or grab a brewski, a pizza, and this DVD.
