Just noticed the review formatting has returned, thank god for that
Just noticed the review formatting has returned, thank god for that
Member since:29.08.2002
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As a fan of both Ben Affleck and Ray Liotta I decided that Smokin’ Aces was a film I had to see at some point. Having missed it at the cinema I finally got a chance to see it earlier today. It seemed to come and go in the cinemas within a few weeks and as I’d not really seen a lot of press about it while it was on I took this to be quite a bad sign. So upon its release on DVD this week I set about acquiring a copy with the express determination of finding out whether it was rightly pulled from the cinema or not.
A mob boss takes out a million dollar hit on a Vegas showman turned FBI snitch named Buddy ’Aces’ Israel (Jeremy Piven). The FBI put him into protective custody in the penthouse of a luxury hotel at Lake Tahoe. While Buddy waits for his trial he amuses himself with hookers and drugs but little does he know what’s about to happen. It seems that just about every hit man in North America has gotten word about the bounty on his head. It then
becomes a race against time as all these hit men and women try to get to Buddy first and claim the million.
I was quite surprised when I seen the list of star names in this movie. The likes of Liotta, Affleck and Reynolds made me think this would be pretty good and I was soon proved right. This is very much your typical lad’s action film with a lot of explosions and gun fights and that’s why it works. It’s the genre and type of movie that explains why it was pulled from the cinema too quickly. It strikes me as more the type of film that would be much better watched in the comfort of your own home with the surround sound cranked up and a few beers. It most certainly isn’t a movie for a romantic night in.
The film is written and directed by Joe Carnahan who also brought us Clive Owen’s 2002 film Ticker. It’s the first time I’d actually come across any of his work and while I felt it was a little bit too slow getting started it really did work. The special effects are amazing with the gun fights looking incredibly realistic and adding a bit of realism to the film. It’s quite a blood thirsty movie and to actually off set this against a plot that works and make a film that looks good is quite a hard achievement. It’s one that Carnahan has stepped up to capably though.
While I thought the film was a little slow in getting going it actually turned out to be for a good reason. Once the story reaches the hotel your actually glad of the build up that slowed the plot down a little bit. The pace of the film is unreal and for Carnahan to have created something this addictive is quite an achievement. There are a few moments in the plot that are a bit far fetched but with the amount of blood and bullets flying around you hardly get time to notice.
With an all star cast it can work out pretty hard for a director to get the most out of them but it seems that Carnahan really has done a brilliant job with this as well. In particular Ryan Reynolds performance as FBI agent Richard Messner is really outstanding. I’ve been quite impressed with Reynolds in other films but this seems to take his performances to a whole new level. He seems to really make the film his own and if I were to pick one lead character it would certainly be his.
The rest of the cast are hardly slouches too. For instance Ray Liotta and Ben Affleck both put in great performances. The characters seem to have been written for each actor who assumes the part. It’s that aspect that gives this film a feeling of a plot rather than one huge gun fight. Had that been missing I think the film would have lost a lot of the edge and appeal it actually has. It isn’t going to be the sort of film that will win any of the actors any awards but it is a decent 104 minutes of entertainment that will hold most guys attention.
Overall this is a pretty good film. It took me a little bit to get into but it does exactly what it says on the tin. It’s a load and brash action movie with lots of guns and blood spill. It is a film for the boys and of course the girls who like a particularly violent movie. If you want to sit around with a bunch of your mates and watch something big on action then this is a film I’d recommend. It may not have stuck around for too long in the cinemas but this is certainly a film that works well on DVD.
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Thriller - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Timothy West, Neil Morrissey, Tara Fitzgerald, Annette Crosbie, Pauline Quirke, Rob Brydon, Denise Van Outen, John Thomson, Kevin Whately, David Suchet
Production Year: 2002 - Thriller - Director: Bharat Nalluri, Rob Bailey, Andy Wilson - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Matthew MacFadyen, Keeley Hawes, David Oyelowo, Peter Firth, Jenny Agutter, Lisa Faulkner
Great review...watched this film just yesturday and loved it!! great stuff. Kate x
danielse 03.06.2007 14:24
Clive Owen's 2002 film 'Ticker'? Not a good thing to get caught bullshitting. Anyone can trawl the imdb looking for credits. Ticker was a 10 minute ad made for the BMWfilm series. Carnahan is far better referenced for his breakthrough work on Narc starring Jason Patric and your fave Ray Liotta.
eve6kicksass 12.05.2007 18:35
A great review there of a film I just hated!! Chris x
A frantic and frequently amusing cocktail of Tarantino cool and Hong Kong bullet ballet, ... more
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An incedendiary array of stars - including Ben Affleck, Andy Garcia, Ray Liotta, Jeremy ... more
Piven, Ryan Reynolds, Alicia Keys and Common - make Smokin' Aces the most explosive action DVD of the year, from Joe Carnahan, the acclaimed director of Narc. When ...
A frantic and frequently amusing cocktail of Tarantino cool and Hong Kong bullet ballet, ... more
Joe (Narc) Carnahan'sSmokin' Acesdelivers some inspired moments of action and dark comedy in its dizzying-comic book plot about a rogue's gallery of killers on the...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
![Smokin' Aces [DVD] [2006]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/77952151.jpg "Smokin' Aces [DVD] [2006]")
May 10th, 2007
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