Smokin’ Aces - Movie Review

Just FYI, Joe Carnahan's first film is actually Blood, Guts, Bullets, & Octane, not the far superior Narc, which is his second film. You were right about one thing, though - Smokin' Aces is Fuckin' Horrible.

This movie was a shooot'em up-mafia movie, through and through. I think you were just expecting a little more "depth" from the guy that did Narc, and it ruined your experience to just enjoy the movie as is. But if you were looking for something "more" out of it, the name "Smokin' Aces" is a play on words, too. It tells that the plot of the movie (the one that you say we have to assume) is that a bunch of hitmen are hired to "smoke" Aces. But the movie is all an allusion. A "smoke (get it?) and mirrors" thing about a story that is supposed to center around the magician, but in actuallity is about the FBI backstory that is, well, kept in the back and leaves you distracted with all the razeldazel of what's going on, until the end where it is all unfolded for you in Andy Garcia's "ten-minute speech". And like a magic show, we're given snipets and reminders of what's going on with the FBI (through the phone calls, and other subtle cut-scenes with them), where we are told nothing is going on over there, but leaves us with the feeling something is up over there... (Something like "There's nothing in this hand folks! Nothing at all... Tada! Here's a dove!" thing). I do agree with you that the whole movie is about distractions, but that's the point of the movie. And I must disagree with your evaluation on the narration. There were point of view changes throughout the whole movie. We follow the female assassins for a while, then we follow Ben Affleck and his ragtag team for about 15 minutes; the only assassin we don't get into really is the guy who singed off his fingerprints. I really don't know how the cut scenes between Ryan Reynolds and the wounded assassin, out of all of them, upset your movie experience. It was needed to explain his re-emergence later in the movie, otherwise we would have been left with a "Where the fuck did he come from?" feeling, but that could have been all avoided if he was just killed off. But he wasn't, and, again, was part of the distraction. Now, after all that, I'm not saying that it was a marvelous movie or anything like that. It was entertaining and got my testosterone-fix. Your opinions are yours and mine are mine, but I wouldn't say that it's as bad as you're making it out to be. Sidenote: Alicia Keys' character is not a lesbian, her partner was.