United Kingdom, France, United States · 2006
Rated R · 1h 49m
Director Joe Carnahan
Starring Ryan Reynolds, Andy García, Martin Henderson, Chris Pine
Genre Action, Comedy, Crime, Thriller
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When a Las Vegas performer-turned-snitch named Buddy Israel decides to turn state's evidence and testify against the mob, it seems that a whole lot of people would like to make sure he's no longer breathing.
In 2002, Carnahan made an intense and violent little cop film, "Narc," with Jason Patric and Ray Liotta. He seemed to have absorbed the influences of John Cassavetes and Martin Scorsese and come up with a style of his own. I was a fan of that movie, but Smokin’ Aces feels like Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill" pushed much further along into lethal absurdity.
Carnahan does have an oddball sense of comic timing; what his picture lacks in hilarity it recuperates with a well-developed, albeit mumbling, sense of the absurd.
ReelViews by James Berardinelli
Smokin' Aces is Tarantino lite - a vague and unsuccessful attempt to bring together a bunch of offbeat, unrelated characters in a situation where a bloody resolution is inescapable.
The Hollywood Reporter by Kirk Honeycutt
While the film bristles with cinematic verve, it also is as second-hand as an antique store.
Charlotte Observer by Lawrence Toppman
A roller-coaster ride that goes on far too long, ends with a colossal crash, then follows that wreck with a lecture explaining the physics of the machinery. My head was spinning for multiple reasons, none of them pleasing.
Austin Chronicle by Marrit Ingman
Half the time the movie wants to be balls-out weird, and it is. But the other half – the half with the good guys – is plodding procedural fare.
Entertainment Weekly by Owen Gleiberman
A cheerfully disposable gangland freak-show thrill ride that's been directed by the gifted Joe Carnahan (Narc) as if he were trying to give the audience a seizure.
Rolling Stone by Peter Travers
Best consumed with pizza and lots of brewskis, Joe Carnahan's Smokin' Aces is shamelessly and unapologetically a guy movie. It's lewd, crude and loaded with shootouts and hot lesbo action.
Smokin' Aces blows some cool smoke rings until it makes the very un-cool mistake of overstaying its welcome.
Philadelphia Inquirer by Steven Rea
Someone should check Joe Carnahan for performance enhancement drugs. Smokin' Aces, the wild ride of a movie he scripted and directed, is so pumped up, manic and mayhem-packed that it practically shoots sweat off the screen.
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