A Última Cartada

Buddy "Aces" Israel is in trouble. A Vegas entertainer once, he got to know the local mob and was taken by the lifestyle to the point that he began his own crew. Unfortunately for him and everyone he knows, it has caught up with him and he now finds himself targeted by all sides and in the hands of the FBI, desperately trying to make a deal with them from the security of the penthouse floor of a luxury hotel. However the FBI pick up wind of a hit called in by Sparazza with a strict time limit, a $1,000,000 bounty and cut out Buddy's heart. It is not long before a handful of bounty hunters are heading towards the hotel with one aim – to be the first.

On a transatlantic flight during the day I had time for one more film before landing. As I was just trying to relax I was looking for undemanding stuff just to distract and entertain me. The film I watched first was Shooter and I mention this deliberately. Shooter was only an OK film but what it did was lay out its stall and make it very clear what it was going to do and how it was going to do it – not necessarily in terms of plotting but more in terms of style and approach. It wasn't great but it worked. I assumed that Smokin' Aces would do the same as the trailer made it look like a comic hit-man film – with hyper filming, lots of stars and lots of action.

Now, if you're thinking that I shouldn't assume then you're right, but this is how the film starts and it is how it is at various stages across the film. However it goes from being a bit like Guy Richie (freeze frames, names on screen etc) to being an all out action fest, with guns everywhere and people surviving the way that they only do in action films. The suddenly in the final third it decides that it not going to be superficially comic or superficially action-packed and suddenly seemed to have an emotional side and expected me to care about the characters and their plights – like it had been a serious drama all along (although I'm not sure how I'm supposed to take the ADD kid with the erection in that context).

In doing this it does still do just about enough to keep a story going but to be honest I started to get bored as it changed tone based on whatever it want to do. Another problem I had with it was the violence – it was very brutal throughout, which I don't have a problem with but the mixed tone meant it was confused. With the comic feel the violent death of characters is really jarring, likewise with the action section – it just seemed too much and made it hard to enjoy. The final turn of tone actually makes the violence work because the extent of it works when you actually are expected to feel it – however by then it was too little too late.

Keeping this in mind it is no surprise that nobody is really that good. Piven goes from ham to tragic figure; it is a nice try but the film doesn't go with him and he is left exposed. Reynolds is reasonably good on the level he works on, a good presence – I've never seen him in anything that good but I generally like him when I see him. Affleck, Berg, Garcia, Liotta and a few others are solid enough but not anything special. Keys is good-looking but she is helped by Henson who is sassy and cute at the same time. The real stand out for me was Common. He dropped out of a big tour to make this and I felt bad that he seemed to be going down the "rapper goes to Hollywood to be in action movie" path. However he is actually one of the few who impressed me; not throughout the film perhaps but in the one scene he has with Piven in the bathroom I did think that he showed potential to do more than just be in this sort of thing. Time will tell if he can move away form just being a good looking guy with a deep voice, but he did seem in touch with his character here.

Overall though, the film is nothing to write home about. With an inconsistent approach that sees approach markedly changed abruptly not once but twice, the film is hard to stick with. It probably offers enough noise and narrative to please those looking for noise and violence but personally I was disappointed and found it hard to care that much about.

Smokin' Aces was most certainly a bit of a magic show within itself, in that while you watched the evident plot go one way, you didn't notice the actual plot until BAM! it came out of nowhere. It wasn't the most coherent of plots sometimes, but for the most part it all wraps up in the end.

As far as greatness goes, this won't be up there winning awards. Rather, it might be remembered fondly as "that cool movie I saw a while ago." Good drama, good action. Ryan Reynolds breaks out in a truly serious and compelling role.

Definitely a movie worth viewing.

6.6 (The collective rating at the time of this writing) is pretty accurate.

I watched this on Netflix (via Xbox Live) a while ago and haven't mustered up enough words to give this a sound review. So this will be one of my shorter ones. Or at least one of my least detailed, on par with some of my much earlier reviews.

I remember a while ago, seeing the previews of this and knowing right off the bat that it was my type of movie. Mindless, violent, and awesome. NUMEROUS mercenaries and assassins are sent towards one guy for being a mob mole. A brilliant concept where they could have easily just made it a mindless slaughter-fest.

I went in expecting that, and that's exactly what I got.

What I DIDN'T expect is an entire back storyline detailing the history of facial disguises and how much of an important part it plays throughout the entire story - even though it's in the background and not revealed until the very end.

So it started as a mindless "ten versus one" assassination but ended as a near-intellectual thriller. I was, as my summary tagline thing states, "Thoroughly impressed".

I know I gave it a 7 but I honestly cannot think of any gripes, and the ones I do are way too minor and end up having a balancing factor.

For example, the movie doesn't seem to want us to be sympathetic with "Aces". The balancing act? It later reveals that you're really not supposed to be.

And that's pretty much the rest of the cast too. They act well, but you don't really give a damn about any of them; BUT THAT'S OKAY. Once again, you don't really HAVE to.

So, I suppose I gave it a 7 (as opposed to 8 or 9, I almost never give out 10's) because it's raunchy and mindless and it's not really any kind of instant classic.

Either way, it's worth seeing. Definitely. I'm glad I did.

I've read some of the reviews for this movie, and I can't agree with them. I completely disagree in that I thought this was a very entertaining movie. The concept was very well thought out but it wasn't perfect, obviously.

Basically, the movie was about several groups of assassins all gunning for the same man for the same price. The reason he is wanted dead is because of his snitching and deceitful ways. I'm not going to give anything away, but once you watch the movie you'll know there's a lot more behind that. Only thing you really need to do is pay as close attention as you can during the beginning, because it does get a little confusing. The story moves along pretty quickly, but you will get the gist of it.

Overall, I thought it was very well done. The plot was good, the characters were amazing (especially Ryan Reynolds), and there were some nice action parts. Even though it dragged on a little bit during the middle, it was necessary to develop plot details. 9 out of 10 stars from me; it was very entertaining and thought provoking. Last but not least, the white karate kid in the trailer was hilarious, "Why you eye-ballin' me son!?".

The movies that are always the most difficult to review are the ones that are not bad, but that still has something missing to them. "Smokin' Aces" is definitely like that. While it's not a bad movie, it's still far from as good as it could have been.

I think the movie started out pretty well. It's got an almost "Lock Stock"-like quality to it where it presents all the main characters in different sequences. After that you feel the stage is set and the guns loaded. Unfortunately then you get the first dip in pace, and the movie never really recovers. Sure, you get a few laughs and some pretty well-done action scenes. But the pace really never picks up and lives up to the promise of the beginnings.

It's difficult for me to put my finger on why i didn't really like this movie. Like i said before it's not bad and it was fairly entertaining. Perhaps my expectations were wrong? I expected something more fast-paced and hysterical, while this is a lot more sombre in pace. The good points are the actors, not that they're great but most of them are pretty good in their parts and many of them are quite funny. Also the action scenes are pretty well done. The negative parts is that i would have liked more action, a quicker pace and a lot less bewildering ending (without giving anything away).

I think most people who like action movies might like this one. It works pretty well, although there are quite a lot of things to improve. I give it a 6/10.