Smokin' Aces

Pros: Violent, Familar faces
Cons: Too violent, weak story

Smokin Aces (2006) A new ultra violent movie with a surprising number of familiar faces (Ray Liotta, Ben Affleck, Andy Garcia, etc.) for being such a lackluster product. Joe Carnahan's Smokin Aces tells the story of Buddy Israel (Jeremy ...

Pros: Great cast, lots of action
Cons: Anticlimactic ending

Smokin’ Aces is the latest action movie from writer/director Joe Carnahan, who previously made the excellent Narc. While I did enjoy this movie, I thought the ending was too anticlimactic. Fans of movies by Quentin Tarantino or Guy Ritchie ...

Pros: some of the action was cool
Cons: The film tries to hard to be too many things, and ends up being none.

The trailer for Smokin Aces looked pretty cool. A high octane action film about a mafia informant with a million dollar contract on his head should make for a fast paced film. My friends and I decided on this film for movie night, and I have to say that ...

Pros: Cool characters, some good action
Cons:

Poor attempt at complicating the plot

Released in 2007, Smokin’ Aces is a Tarantino style action packed gangster movie. The title refers to the central character, Buddy “Aces” Israel, a magician turned Mafioso, turned informant to the FBI. The “Smokin” part ...

Pros: quirky characters, effective violence, cool exchanges
Cons: boring and confusing first half hour, poorly developed final scene

When I was a kid, circa 1974, growing up in the dusty town of Tucson, Arizona, there was a movie playing at the Apache Drive-In: Sam Peckinpah's Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia. That's what I immediately thought of, less than five minutes into ...

Pros: Oob.
Cons: Messy direction, too much, too little, too iffy, too long.

OK. Take about a dozen assassins, point them at a drugged out waste of a target, then throw them in a really big opaque garbage bag with a few guns and shake them up. What do you have? This film. In looking for a solid action film to watch with a ...

Pros: Segment after Affleck death scene, Piven breakdown, Ritalin kid, snappy dialogue.
Cons: Melancholy ending and excessive gunplay might unsettle some audience members.

Smok in' Aces (2007) made for an entertaining afternoon diversion, but I should have skipped that soda (I had to step away for a few minutes) because I was slightly confused when I ...

Pros: Pivin, some funny scenes
Cons: then it turns extremely violent and all sense is sent out the door

After a night at the hockey game, the wife and I needed some more mindless violence and, since we had movie tickets to burn by April, we decided to check out Smokin' Aces, the new flick by Joe Carnahan. The trailers looked suitably crazy and it ...

Pros: lots of action toward the end, some good cast members
Cons: unoriginal, too boring at the beginning, hard to follow, stupid twists

Buddy (“Aces”) Israel (Jeremy Piven) is a conceited, full-of-himself, sleazy magician on the Las Vegas strip who has a cocaine problem. Sparazza, a head mobster who has some leaky history that can only be touted by Israel , wants the guy killed – and the ...

Pros: Piven, Reynolds and Bateman are decent.
Cons: Too violent, skimpy plot,stupid plot "twists".

In the mood for a little mindless entertainment, I took in Smokin' Aces, a shoot-em-up with a fairly impressive ensemble cast. Well, I found the mindless but not the entertainment. This hyper-violent movie was short on plot and character ...

Pros: Very entertaining, weird plot twists, and a lot of assassins
Cons: Hard to keep track of, some characters didn't get enough screen time

I have been interested in seeing smokin’ aces since it came out. Most people described it as a mix of Guy Ritchie and Quentin Tarantino, it seemed like a fabulous mix and I knew I had to see it despite bad reviews. I can safely say it is much better than ...

Pros: Interesting writing, lots of action, solid acting.
Cons: Excessive violence, so-so casting, predictable plot.

Once again I found myself surfing my On Demand choices when I came across Smokin' Aces. I vaguely remembered the trailers for this film when it was in theaters last year and thought it looked interesting. With nothing better to do, I figured I'd ...

Pros: The ever sexy Alicia Keys looking, well, sexy.
Cons: Everything else.

I will be the first to admit that Alicia Keys is one of the most beautiful, sexy, and talented women in the entertainment business, but she could have picked a more respectful and challenging role than hit woman Georgia Sykes in the 2006 stinker ...

Pros: Cool Action, Cool Characters, Promising Premise
Cons: Lack of cohesion and character development. Cluttered

Like most red-blooded American males, I enjoy violent films. Blood, guts, guns, babes, and excessive profanities make me happy. But what makes me very unhappy is a lack of cohesion, character development, or story. Smokin’ Aces is plentiful in ...

Pros: Great performance by Ryan Reynolds; often funny moments.
Cons: An overly complex, Usual Suspects-like finale.

Former magician Buddy "Aces" Israel (Jeremy Piven) recently became part of a mafia empire run by Primo Sparazza (Joseph Ruskin). However, things didn't turn out so well, and now he's reduced to a desperate junkie who has agreed to turn state evidence ...