tdrish
I had very high expectations for this. The sad part is, is that I can count numerous reasons why this movie passes with flying colors. The intensity, the raw energy, the action sequences...all spot on! Choreography was awesome! Acting was solid. I can go on and on about all the good stuff, however, when it comes to the "story line" for this mess, it bogs it all down. ALL DOWN! And that's sad. Why does the story have to suffer? Well. I think the film makers thought they could make a great movie by over stuffing the hell out of it with a lot of heart pounding action, and who cares about the story, right? If that philosophy were true, Showgirls would have been the greatest movie on earth, now wouldn't it have been. Sadly, we have to turn into reality, and put the fantasy thoughts on the back burner. Sure, this was a successful film for its genre. It doesn't excuse the fact that it was a mad, twisted mess for a film. Buddy has managed to piss off the mob boss for turning in evidence to the state. In response to this, the boss has set out several hit men to erase Buddy off all maps once and for all. Several hit men. Several! Even hit women. There's only one reward. These hit men are not going to be in any mood to share it. Will they turn against each other? I think you know the answer to that. With that, we set up 90 percent of what Smokin Aces is all about...a whole lot of action, boiling down to a whole lot of nothing. These hitmen are ruthless. Cold hearted. Stone cold, cold hearted. And how will it all end? You'll have to watch to find out, some may be let down by how it all ends. I think it's anything but predictable. Do I recommend it? I do not. Even though most may be entertained by it, I do not think this is anything to write home about. Bottom line: Smokin Aces is just too much smoke, and not enough ace!
muons
The movie tells the story of a cranky magician who'd testify against the Vegas mob. The FBI want to put him under witness protection and a whole bunch of weird hitman characters try to get him before he testifies. That sounds neat and clear as a plot but the movie is nowhere near being clear. Unconnected scenes involving some weird, some silly characters flash one after another with incoherent dialogues (actually sounding more like monologues) with a techno soundtrack which almost never stops. The scenario is verbose to the level of making no sense at all. The only things that made sense were the commercial breaks (I saw it on a free to air channel). Not worth a dime or a second to waste.
BA_Harrison
I like the basic premise for Smokin' Aces—hired killers competing to collect the $1m placed on the head of a mafia snitch. I like the cast, which features a raft of impressive names. And I appreciate the occasionally anarchic approach, the film throwing in random 'WTF?' scenes and going into cartoonish, hyperviolent overdrive for its action.What I didn't like was the very uneven pacing throughout, the overly complex plot which introduces way too many characters, and the unnecessary twist ending of the kind that might have seemed fresh the previous decade (when The Usual Suspects, Seven, Fight Club and The Sixth Sense pulled the rug from under the viewer's feet), but which soon became annoyingly trite.5.5 out of 10, rounded up to 6 for the karate Ritalin kid with the boner, who is so freakin' bizarre that I couldn't help but laugh.
