SMOKIN' ACES

Whoever green-lit the script Smokin’ Aces was definitely smokin’ somethin’.

Smokin’ Aces is the third movie that Joe Carnahan both wrote and directed, the second being Narc, released in 2002. While Narc was dramatic and had a through line like a speeding bullet, Smokin’ Aces meanders through a murky plot and 20 minutes of introducing 10-plus characters contracted to kill Buddy “Aces" Israel (Jeremy Piven), a famous Las Vegas magician with ties to the Mafia, and bring back his heart, literally. The FBI is in the process of cutting a deal with Buddy’s lawyer for him to squeal on his Mafia friends in order to avoid jail. Meanwhile, the FBI is holding Buddy in a Lake Tahoe penthouse for protection while he parties with prostitutes and snorts cocaine with regularity—makes you wonder what the FBI considers as protection.

The story centers (kind of) around two FBI agents, Donald Carruthers (Ray Liotta) and Richard Messner (Ryan Reynolds), as they slowly decipher the complexities of the twists and turns of this convoluted story.  Alas, the film spends less screen time with them and too much with peripheral contract killers who are over-the-top, comic-book menacing, rather than real menacing, which diminishes the drama and reduces the film to a laughable state. One of the contract killers, a militant African-American hit woman, is played by Alicia Keys, who is virtually wasted in her first major film role. The same goes for the wonderful actor Peter Berg, who is on screen for the same amount of time as a television commercial. And Andy Garcia walks through his role with an accent that is still confusing.

Joe Carnahan’s Narc was a really great film. Smokin’ Aces, on the other hand, is everything a film should not be—plagued by a convoluted script, a waste of talented actors, poor direction, and a ludicrous story.   My fear is that Mr. Carnahan was trying to be Quentin Tarantino while making Smokin’ Aces, when he should have been Narc’s Mr. Carnahan. Hopefully, before he writes and directs the next film he will watch Narc to remember how it should be done.

                                                     James R. Janowsky