« poem: blue | Home | i got bad peanut butter »
review: smokin’ aces (2007)
By vrtualme | February 16, 2007
Everybody wants Buddy ‘Aces’ Israel, and they’ve all got less than 24 hours to get him. The head of the Vegas mob wants his heart, the FBI wants his cooperation, bounty hunters want him behind bars, and half a dozen hit men want him dead.
What a disappointment for a film with such an
amazing cast. There were too many things I didn’t like, but what really ruins this movie is what I would guess were re-edits after the fact. It’s like the studio executives said “this movie is too confusing, and not violent enough.” So what we got were lots of background explaining (blah blah blah); and reshot scenes of torture and gore that throw off continuity.
First “background explaining” – characters standing around at the beginning telling long stories to each other presumably to clue the audience in on the motives of other characters. It wasn’t needed here. The best part of the movie was the last few minutes when we get a great twist in the plot line. Over all, the whole movie would have been better if the audience was left to discover things as they happened along the way. Let us wonder who is good, who is bad, and what their motives are.
And then “reshot scenes” – how about when ace blinds a body guard with a playing card? Ouch, it’s a small cut but on the eye that’s gotta hurt. Flash to the body guard screaming with a bloody eye socket; gross. But all shots of him afterwards have him with just a little cut again; and no eye damage. Stuff like this happens a few times, and it just looks really stupid.
And my final complaint is this, with all the t&a in this movie, what about a little eye candy for the women? Couldn’t Ryan Reynolds (who, btw, is the real star of this movie) have at least one scene without his shirt?
I’m sure the mindless crowd will love this movie, but anyone with the slightest cinematic tastes will find it low rent. it’s a wanna-be cult classic that totally misses the mark.
Smokin’ aces is currently playing in theaters.
For more info here is the imdb link.