Smokin' Aces (2006)

When a Las Vegas performer-turned-snitch named Buddy Israel decides to turn state's evidence and testify against the mob, it seems that a whole lot of people would like to make sure he's no longer breathing.

Director:

Joe Carnahan

Writer:

Joe Carnahan

Stars:

Ryan Reynolds, Ray Liotta, Joseph Ruskin

4 wins.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Ryan Reynolds	...	Richard Messner
Ray Liotta	...	Donald Carruthers
Joseph Ruskin	...	Primo Sparazza
Alex Rocco	...	Serna
Wayne Newton	...	Himself
Jeremy Piven	...	Buddy Israel
Ben Affleck	...	Jack Dupree
Peter Berg	...	"Pistol" Pete Deeks
Martin Henderson	...	Hollis Elmore
Common	...	Sir Ivy
Christopher Michael Holley	...	Beanie (as Christopher Holley)
Andy Garcia	...	Stanley Locke
Mike Falkow	...	Freeman Heller
Joe Drago	...	FBI Aid
Jeff Habberstad	...	Top Coated Gunman

Storyline

Mob boss Primo Sparazza has taken out a hefty contract on Buddy "Aces" Israel, a sleazy magician who has agreed to turn state's evidence against the Vegas mob. The FBI, sensing a chance to use this small-time con to bring down big-target Sparazza, places Aces into protective custody-under the supervision of two agents dispatched to Aces' Lake Tahoe hideout. When the word of the price on Aces' head spreads into the community of ex-cons and cons-to-be, it entices bounty hunters, thugs-for-hire, deadly vixens and double-crossing mobsters to join in the hunt. With all eyes on Tahoe, this rogues' gallery collides in a comic race to hit the jackpot and rub out Aces.

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Plot Keywords:

lake | fbi | magician | fbi agent | casino | 

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Taglines:

Nobody gets away clean.

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Genres:

Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong bloody violence, pervasive language, some nudity and drug use

Details

Official Sites:

Studio Canal [fr] United International Pictures [jp]

Country:

UK France USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

26 January 2007 (USA)

Also Known As:

A Última Cartada

Filming Locations:

California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$17,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$14,638,755 (USA) (26 January 2007)

Gross:

$35,635,046 (USA) (9 March 2007)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal Pictures, StudioCanal, Relativity Media

Technical Specs

Runtime:

109 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The song in the final credits is "Play Your Cards Right" by Common, who also stars in the film.

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Goofs

In various places throughout the movie it is indicated Heller was shot in 1952, but he is shot near a 1956 Ford.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Donald Carruthers: You've got to be careful when doing your stakeouts. I did one for... I was on one for six months. I gained, like, 20, 25 pounds. You keep eating this crap...
Richard Messner: Well, that's not my problem, though. I don't gain weight. I tried.
Donald Carruthers: That's 'cause you're 12 years old.

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Connections

Referenced in Smokin' Aces 2: Assassins' Ball - Confessions of an Assassin (2010)

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Soundtracks

"Segura O Sambura"
(Roberto Castiglioni, Raffaele Piccolo)
Performed by Nilton Castro
Courtesy of Crisler Music Srl

User Reviews

A shaggy dog story that goes enjoyably nowhere.

There is a new genre infesting our nation's movie theaters. With apologies to Garrison Kellior, let's call it "guy noir". Films aimed directly at the young, hip male audience. Movies that are an unholy combination of old fashioned film noir and the modern action movie, as directed by the class clown. They offer fast paced entertainment, great character actors, twisty plot lines, explosions and more spent ordinance than used in a typical week in Baghdad. Even new genres breed clichés however and the original freshness heralded by Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction is beginning to smell the slightest bit stale. This brings us to Smokin' Aces, a movie that isn't so smug as to be intolerable or so brilliant as to be ground breaking. Rather it is good, competent, workmanlike example of its genre, which is bad news for a movie that wants to be hip and edgy.

Smokin' Aces has the requisite twisty plot. Actually it has at least nine plots, all twisty. In fact it has so many plots the movie dissolves into a series of incidences strung together by a smattering of narrative glue. Aces, a card magician and mob nabob, turns federal stoolie and a dying Godfather posts a high dollar contract on him. Naturally every photogenic hit-man with the weekend free descends upon Ace's casino penthouse to do the job and collect the dough. Smokin' Aces tries hard and includes everything needed to qualify as guy noir. It even tries to incorporate the "Tarantino Digression". That is, extended expository flashbacks incorporated for no good reason except that they are fun to watch. Smoking Aces can't quite pull these off as they require a defter touch than the movie is capable of.

There aren't any real people in Smokin' Aces. All the characters are strictly stereotypes played for effect rather than reality. Jeremy Piven as Aces is the self loathing hop head, Alicia Keys and Georgia Sykes are the hot lesbian hit team, Ben Afleck is the hipster bounty hunter and so on. Everything you need to know about these guys you learn in the first split second they are on the screen. There is no star in Smokin' Aces. Afleck, the biggest name, has a relatively small part and is upstaged by his hat. You might remember Chris Pine, Kevin Durand and Maury Sterling as the Tremor brothers if only because they were the loudest, most violent bunch in a loud violent movie. The only actor who rises above caricature is Ray Liotta, who invests his FBI agent with quiet dignity and a touch of pathos and in doing so sticks out like a sore thumb. It takes a strange sort of movie for a review to criticize the one genuinely good performance in it but Liotta just doesn't fit.

Smokin' Aces manages to hold its whirly gig self together for the most part. There are a few problems. It goes on too long after the climatic blood bath wrapping up plot threads you probably didn't notice amongst the explosions. There is a denouement where a hero, brought in from way out in left field, makes an existential choice that is not nearly as agonizing as the movie thinks it is because we have no emotional investment in the fellow making it. Though the final plot twist is prepared for and makes as much sense as anything else in the film, still it feels flat and unsatisfying. Think of Smokin' Aces as a shaggy dog story. It's long, involved and fun to listen to but ultimately goes nowhere.