RSSKeep Your Expectations Low and Go See Smokin’ Aces
Feb 10
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Smokin’ Aces didn’t fare so well in critic’s reviews and fan posts, all of which leads me to believe that expectations were pretty high for the shoot-’em-up flick.
So let’s just put this out there: the ending was a little lackluster. The music reached a frenzied pitched as director Joe Carnahan pulled the plug, but the audience had already flat-lined.
I think I know why. The movie eschews a typical protagonist/antagonist model and makes everyone the bad guy. It’s hard to know who to root for (aside from the gorgeous and entertaining Alicia Keys who perfectly hit the right notes in her first film role as the assassin Georgia Sykes.) That leaves an emotional disconnect for the audience, especially once the bullets start flying in every direction. Unless you’re the type that roots for the violence for the sake of violence (put your hand down, this isn’t a vote) it becomes hard toward the last third of the movie to stay engaged.
This movie isn’t bad. It is a little Quentin Tarantino, a little David Lynch. It is the David Lynch aspects that appeal to me the most. The trashed and burned Buddy “Aces” Israel (Jeremy Piven, who never met a drug-addict magician role he didn’t like) who brandishes playing cards and words effectively as any other weapon in the film. The Tremor Brothers, who show up to the party with flares and a chainsaw. Though even I, a devoted member of the Mulholland Dr. fan club, could find nothing useful to do with the karate-chopping one-eyed pubescent kid Warren (Zach Cumer.)
The story revolves around the assassination of Israel, put on by mob boss Primo Sparazza (Joseph Ruskin.) From the get-go, we know the price on Israel’s head is six figures and that is going to draw out a handful of assassins looking to cash in. The FBI wants Israel alive to testify against Sparazza. That’s all you need to know. In fact, if you watched the trailers -- you do already know that, and the most of the movie is the collision of the FBI agents and assassins for hire at the penthouse suite where Israel is holed up with prostitutes and his entourage.
Trying to model the flick on Tarantino is a misstep (the influence of Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction is so pervasive, this movie is a shrine.) Let’s face it, in the creative hands of very few people could Pulp Fiction been a successful movie. If Reservoir Dogs was a ballet, then Smokin’ Aces is the WWE. The first twenty minutes, which lays out the players by jumping through clips of assassination attempts, and FBI investigations, and prison cells, and the current day, all of it is a little too much to get our sea legs. Finally, the film settles down and finds a good narrative voice. For the next hour, the film offers a breathless sequence of events that brings all the players close to confronting Israel.
But it is at that point, when the violence is at its peak (when Sharice, played heartbreakingly by Taraji P. Henson, blows an FBI agent off the map with a Barrett M82 .50 caliber sniper rifle from a hotel across the street -- that first shot is awesome) that the movie lets us down. All because that is the moment when we realize we don’t care if Israel makes it through to the end of the movie. So the film’s main premise, that Israel must die by assassins or testify against the mob, fails by not giving us anything to root for. Israel is selfish and spoiled and not particularly likeable. But he is soft, not particularly ruthless, and there is just enough tragedy about him that we aren’t screaming for his blood either.
Ultimately, Joe Carnahan takes the blame. He tackles way too many subplots, some artfully, some not. It leaves the ending deflated and in the hands of FBI agent Richard Messner (Ryan Reynolds) simply by virtue of being the last man standing. It doesn’t work as well as the rest of the movie.
All that said, for 100 minutes, I was thoroughly entertained. My expectations weren’t high, in fact, just low enough all around to be utterly satisfied. If you like action and bullets with a minimal amount of blood, and haven’t already written it off, try Smokin’ Aces.
