Wannabe gangster and full-time Las Vegas magician Buddy 'Aces' Israel decides to turn federal witness against one of the biggest mobsters of all time. Holed up in a Nevada hotel room while his manager tries to hammer out a deal with the FBI, he starts going stir crazy. But that's the least of his problems when word gets out that he's going to snitch on the mafia don. Hired killers appear from everywhere, determined to bring him down and get a cut of a million dollar contract on his life. The only thing standing between him and certain death are two dogged FBI agents.

The director has no finesse, throwing every visual and narrative device at the screen and hoping some of them stick. It makes for a messy and nonsensical experience. You know you're onto a loser when the film starts with an unnecessary subtitled introduction that could have just as easily been replaced by two lines of dialogue or a short montage. It's as though Carnahan is apologising for the shortcomings of what you're about to see. And if the director thinks it's that bad, it's not a good sign. The constant cutting between rival factions is an attempt to hoodwink us into not noticing the lack of personalities or coherent storylines. Instead of character development, we get confusing flashbacks and spilt-screen montages that are two swift too tell you anything. The result being that you don't care about any of the characters because you don't get to know them. The film stock changes from shot to shot as though Carnahan couldn't afford a full reel and the excess of wonky camera angles smacks of film school naivety. He can't decide what genre he's aiming for, so we get drawn-out conversations in the back of surveillance vans that tell you nothing cheek-by-jowl with nosebleed edited chase scenes and montages.

I'll bet Carnahan wishes he could blames the myriad problems on the script, but seeing as he wrote it, he doesn't have that choice. It feels like a back-of-a-fag-packet idea and the subtitled introduction was probably his one minute pitch to the producers. Everything about it screams cheap Tarantino rip-off. The multi-strand narrative owes a huge debt to "Pulp Fiction", though lacks its flair and consistency. Not to mention the fact that many of its plotlines lead nowhere. But unlike that particular film, every time the characters encounter each other here, it feels contrived. The plotting ties itself in knots trying to get them together and when they do, they either kill each other or have a convoluted conversation that leads nowhere.

The ensemble cast is largely wasted on this paltry project. Ryan Reynolds is a likeable presence on-screen. As FBI agent Richard Messner he's supposed to be the emotional centre of the film but isn't written well enough to truly exist. Reynolds attempts intensity, but with nothing to hang the character on his actions appear random and his relationship with his partner isn't strong enough. Ray Liotta is lumbered with the standard old guard role as Reynolds partner, unable to create a personality during his limited screen-time. Andy Garcia fares better in this respect as FBI head Stanley Locke. His character is much clearer, though this is mainly because of his role as in-story narrator. He's calm and measured throughout but showcases a slightly odd accent that doesn't sit well with his usual intonation. As the titular Aces, Jeremy Piven grows increasingly raddled, looking like hell beneath the David Copperfield tan and shoddy wig. He's belligerent, unpleasant and entirely deserving of his death sentence. You won't like him a jot, but that's the point of the role.

The supposedly original music by Clint Mansell harks back to the funk-laden 70s for its inspiration. It relies heavily on wock-a-chocking electric guitar and flute arrangements to try to bring some sense of uniformity to the film. There's also plenty of jangly Hammond organ and slap bass backed by insistent rhythms. However, it feels like he's aping David Arnold. And then he has the temerity to try to make you feel with low register piano and strings or faux-western humming chorals and guitar motifs. The rest of the soundtrack is somewhat eclectic, using old-fashioned soul for the lady-killers, hardcore techno and metal for the loony Tremors and bland rock for just about everyone else.