by Stephanie Clarke

Created on: January 29, 2007   Last Updated: May 09, 2007

Smokin' Aces (2006), directed by Joe Carnahan, could be described as The Untouchables meets a Quentin Tarantino film. However, this film displays nothing of the genius for sharp, unforgettable dialogue a la Tarantino. Tarantino's visual display of violence is shocking but minimal or well timed, whereas this film is jam packed with flashing, violent images leaving the viewer shaken and very disturbed. There is little room in Smokin' Aces for much suspense. The recipe should be simple: take a key witness in the trial of a leading mafia boss who is a cocaine-eating, washed-out Las Vegas performer; then put him in the care of a gaggle of bemused FBI agents pitted against a mixed flavoring of assassins hired to kill him. However, what you get is an over spiced dish of chaos and carnage.

It is a film that wants to be Tarantino but fails where Tarantino excels in characterization. The dialog of the characters in Smokin' Aces is dull, clichd or lacking in any character at all. Ironically, three FBI agents played by reputable Hollywood actors: Ray Liotta (Donald Caruthers), Ben Affleck (Jack Dupree) and Andy Garcia (Stanley Locke) are characters who seem hollow and pathetic up against the hyperbolic caricatures of their opponents, the assassins.

The assassins do have a warped charm, especially in the form of Alicia Keys who adds a bit of booty and bling to the barbaric butchering. Then there are the clownish antics of a troupe of mad dog, redneck killers; they are mindless murderers who probably would be happy to be thrown a couple of pounds of raw meat as their payment for doing in the witness. Add in a psychotic European mercenary and another ruthless killer who is a master of disguise to rival Kevin Spacey's Kaiser Sosei, from the Usual Suspects, without the gift of the gab. They are an eclectic bunch fighting against each other and the FBI. The momentum of the film is kept alive with the thrill of finding out who is going to manage to survive and achieve their goal.

Smokin' Aces is not a bad film but there certainly is no brilliance. The script is unremarkable and solely dependent on its visual effects. It is black humour bordering on slap stick at times. Especially watch out for the scene of the young redneck boy simulating a frenzied martial art attack on an FBI agent which is both disturbing and hilarious.

If the film is attempting social satire, it does show up the corruption of the American Government in its dealings with the criminal underworld. The moral tone of the ending, it has to be said, somewhat redeems the film for its gratuitous bloodlust and there is a twist, a sting in the tail of the plot, albeit not a very sharp one. On the whole though Smokin' Aces will only make you feel queasy as though you have just eaten something unpleasant, not easy to digest and hardly satisfying for film consumption.

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