Ace

Ace" is a Tamil heist comedy-drama, starring Vijay Sethupathi and Rukmini Vasanth, that blends romance, crime, and humor. While the movie has some enjoyable moments, particularly in the second half and with the performances of Vijay Sethupathi and Yogi Babu, it ultimately falls short due to a meandering screenplay and uneven pacing.

The film follows Kannan (Vijay Sethupathi), a poker ace with a mysterious past, who gets entangled in a series of events involving a loan shark, a naive young woman, and a complicated heist. The plot introduces several characters and subplots, including a budding romance between Kannan and a young woman named Priya (Rukmini Vasanth), which adds some emotional depth to the otherwise lighthearted narrative. However, the story struggles to maintain a consistent tone and often feels like it's going in multiple directions.

POSITIVES: Engaging Second Half: The second half, particularly the heist sequences, is well-executed and keeps the audience invested in the story.

Vijay Sethupathi's Performance: Vijay Sethupathi delivers a natural and effortless performance, embodying the character of Kannan with charisma and charm.

Yogi Babu's Comedy: Yogi Babu provides some much-needed comic relief and his combination with Vijay Sethupathi is a definite highlight.

Rukmini Vasanth's Debut: Rukmini Vasanth makes a promising Tamil debut, and her character brings a certain charm to the film.

Good Cinematography: The cinematography is commendable, especially considering the film's budget.

Engaging Score: Sam CS's background score enhances the viewing experience, though at times it can be a bit intrusive.

This video provides a general overview of the movie, including its plot and some audience reactions:

Ace is a masterwork of movement, light, and frame. 🎥 The motive close-ups and underwater sequences were stunning. VJS lived the role; his performance felt organic. 🙌 Rukmini was effortlessly refreshing, and Yogi Babu blended humor with emotion in a rare combo. The screenplay moved with great rhythm, and the finale had a clever build-up. Aditya Rao's score was haunting yet subtle. Sound design? Flawless. When every department clicks, this is what we get. Proud to see Tamil cinema evolve like this! 👏Climax shot slow-motion water splash - vera level! Some scenes make me a goosebumps and very unexpected climax must watch movie! Don't miss in theatre.

Bolt Kannan arrives in Malaysia and Arivu picks him up, while pretending to be a rich businessman. With his lies, Arivu is trying to woo his love interest Kalpana, who is in need of money. Kannan is hired by Kalpana at her restaurant and he even falls for Rukku after she accuses him of being a thief. As their love blossoms, he is told that Rukku is in need of money to free herself from her abusive cop stepfather. In his attempt to arrange money for her, Kannan gets in trouble with a local loan shark / goon Dharma and ends up with a larger debt to him. Now, Arivu not only has to arrange money for Rukku but also pay off Dharma. What plan does he come up with to get out of this mess and will he able to pull it off, forms rest of the story.

Arumuga Kumar's story is decent and the screenplay tilts towards keeping things light throughput. It doesn't pay off as the stakes are never that high to feel the seriousness of the situation. There is hero elevation but that is not the kind of film Arumuga and Vijay Sethupathi want this one to be, so the humor dilutes it instantly. The uneven narrative dealing with a cunning man trying to outsmart a loan shark, a corrupt cop and actually Malaysian cops after pulling off an heist, needed a tighter screenplay. In his attempt, the story stops being engaging and the songs appeared as speedbreakers. Vijay Sethupathi and Yogi Babu with generic writing can only do so much to shoulder the narrative. The convenient writing also kept the proceedings dull, especially in the second half. I am going with a lenient rating, only for the attempt to keep it a light entertainer but it deserved better writing.

RATED 7/10 Language: Tamil Source: Amazon Prime

This is the perfect movie for the OTT platform, where you have the control on your hand to forward on the lazy moments.

The story and characters are highly predictable. There are lot of repeated events/scenes which makes the movie looks very long. Still there are some good enjoyable moments make the movie watchable.

VJS and Yogi babu combination is very run of the mill idea. Heroine is fresh face for this movie and worked out well for the character.

Just put your expectation for the utter masala entertainment and you will not be disappointed.

Ace(2025) Movie: What's Behind Vijay Sethupathi who endeared himself to all as Makkal Selvan with his versatile and impactful performances, recently scored a blockbuster in form of Maharaja. Now, he is getting ready to thrill viewers with Ace. The film directed by Arumuga Kumar is releasing on 23 May 2025. The film's OTT rights have been acquired by Amazon Prime. The film is presented in Telugu by B. Siva Prasad.

B. Siva Prasad is known for his good taste and passion to bring forward something new to the Telugu movie lovers and though he acquired the rights at the last minute, he ensured that Ace will be released in numerous theatres so that viewers will get to watch a good film.

Ace(2025) Movie: Story Review

Ace story revolves around the journey of a person who lands in a foreign land for livelihood and how he deals with the challenging situations when his near and dear ones gets impacted by financial crunches. Gnananandam (Yogi Babu) receives Bolt Kasi (Vijay Sethupathi) in Malaysia and Kasi attracts to a beautiful girl Rukku (Rukmini Vasanth),

Kasi takes a daring decision when Rukku is faced with the financial problem. Where this leads to and how it is connected to Kalpana (Divya Pillai), police officer Raja Durai (Prithviraj), gangster Dharma (BS. Avinash) form the interesting part of the proceedings.

Ace(2025) Movie: Artists Review Vijay Sethupathi seems to have shed few kilos for his role. Much to the delight and surprise of all, he looked younger on the screen. He came up with a subtle and sedate performance. Despite toning down, he made an impact with his screen presence with his innocent looks, emotions and expressions. His dialogue delivery is impactful to the core. Online movie streaming services

Yogi Babu is good and with his presence generated humour on the screen. The combination scenes featuring Vijay Sethupathi and Yogi Babu created a laughing riot.

Rukmini Vasanth's Kollywood debut is within her limits. She performed according to her role. She looked good at times and showed pain in her dialogues accordingly. Divya Pillai performed well in her role.

Prithviraj made his presence felt as the baddie. BS. Avinash also did the same. Others performed according to their roles.

Ace(2025) Movie: Technicians Review Ace story is penned by Arumuga Kumar. He tried to entertain viewers with a hilarious heist thriller. He introduces all the characters in the first half and takes his own time in the process. The slow pace in the narration tests the patience of the viewers but at times, they forget that due to the hilarious scenes featuring Vijay Sethupathi and Yogi Babu. The pre interval and interval including the poker game increases the interest levels. Online movie streaming services

He shifts the second half narration more into action genre with few interesting twists but once again the pre climax and climax is dragged before the film ends with an interesting twist. The story of Arumuga Kumar is monotonous and looks silly and illogical. However, he made up for it with the hilarious scenes and with the performances of Vijay Sethupathi and Yogi Babu.

Dialogues are appealing and interesting. Screenplay is ok and could have been more racy. Cinematography of Karan B Rawat is good. He showed the locations in Malaysia in an appealing manner. Editing of Fenny Oliver could have been far better as there are many scenes that slowed the pace of the narration. Justin Prabhakaran's music is ok but Sam. CS with his background music elevated the scenes. Production values are good.

Ace(2025) Movie: Advantages Vijay Sethupathi Yogi Babu Few Comedy Scenes

Ace(2025) Movie: Disadvantages Slow Pace Illogical Scenes

Ace(2025) Movie: Rating Analysis Altogether, Ace turns out to be a decent entertainer. Vijay Sethupathi as usual, captivates with his subtle and stellar performance in a graceful manner. Director Arumuga Kumar got the optimum out of Vijay Sethupathi and Yogi Babu and also blended it with commercial and hilarious elements. The pacing however, turned out to be slow. A little fine-tuning of the script would have added value. One has to wait to see how the viewers will receive the film at the box office, but Vijay Sethupathi with his performance will steal the hearts of all when the film starts streaming on OTT. Considering all these aspects Verdict: Hit.