Smokin’ Aces

Posted by Clayton L. White (stinky_booties@hotmail.com) on April 18, 2007

Back in 2002, a man by the name of Joe Carnahan hit the movie scene with a film called Narc. The film was a typical routine cop thriller, but it was done well. It was stylish, well acted, and fairly intelligent. Most importantly, it made Joe Carnahan a name to remember. This was a director with promise, a filmmaker on the rise. After the success of that film, Carnahan signed on to direct Mission Impossible III, but after months of preproduction Carnahan left the project due to “creative differences” (that’s Hollywood slang for getting canned). Now, to some filmmakers that could be a huge roadblock, but Carnahan was smart enough to know that he had to act quick in order to save his career. The result, sadly, is Smokin’ Aces.

This is the story of a magician/illusionist/showman by the name of Buddy “Aces” Israel, played by Jeremy Piven. In the opening scene of the film we find out that a mob boss is asking for the head of Israel, or rather his heart. As a result of this, just about everyone in 48 states who owns a gun, chainsaw, or blowtorch is headed to Nevada to take their shot at Buddy, who is holed up in a hotel suite with mounds of cocaine and an assortment of hookers. You got the two FBI agents (Ryan Reynolds and Ray Liotta), a bailbondsman and an ex-vice cop (Ben Affleck and Peter Berg), and, of course, you get the token hitwomen (Alicia Keys and Tajari P. Henson) who allude to being lesbians, but who really aren’t, I guess. I don’t really know. What I do know is that Carnahan basically takes every idea that’s in his head and mashes it together into one big mess of a film. Now, this would be fine if it were played that way, but instead Carnahan takes his work too seriously. He spends nearly an hour of the film with the set up, piling one convoluted plot point on top of another, and then when he finally gets to the climactic blood bath, he asks the audience to share in some sort of lame attempt at carthasis. Of course this doesn’t work because he doesn’t even attempt to flesh out the characters any further than what is included in the opening scenes. We don’t get to know these characters, and we certainly don’t feel for them when things start to hit the fan, and the end result is sloppy storytelling that is very poorly executed. While watching the film i got this overwhelming feeling of embarrassment. I felt ashamed for watching this piece of crap, and I felt even worse for the actors involved, but then I pinched myself and was reminded of the fact that they all get paid much more than they should, when in reality we should be getting paid for sifting our way through this heap of trash.

As much as I hated this film, and I do mean hated, there are a few good things worth mentioning. Ryan Reynolds is actually quite surprising and i would like to see him stretch his wings and stop making low base comedies and horror remakes. Jason Batemen from Arrested Development appears in only two scenes, but he is easily the highlight of here, and probably the sole reason I didn’t give the film an F. Last but certainly not least is the score by Clint Mansell (Requiem for a Dream), who is able to produce something quite effective, if you can notice it among all the gunfire and the over-expository dialogue. These things aside, the film is much better at confirming beliefs that I already had; Andy Garcia and Ray Liotta both have a tendency to sell themselves short, neither Alicia Keys nor Common should quit their day jobs, and Jeremy Piven better hope that HBO keeps asking for more seasons of Entourage, because if these are the kind of film roles he’s being offered his career will disappear faster than that ace of spades he keeps twirling around in this movie.

To be quite honest, I don’t believe that Carnahan is a bad director. Even though some of his set pieces play like something Michael Mann could have churned out before puberty, Carnahan has a good eye. He can get good performances from the right actors, but he falls back on stunt casting too often and his work suffers because of it. Yes, it’s fine to cast a musician in a film, as long as they can act. In a way, Carnahan reminds me of M. Night Shyamalan. They are both talented crafstmen who would probably exceed at directing someone else’s script, because when they do it themselves, they fail miserably. I’m sure the words sound alright in their own heads, it’s just a shame that they feel the need to share it with us. It’s like the old saying goes, the pen is unfortunately mightier than the sword.

While the end credits were rolling and before I thanked God that the torture was over, I thought of the great Robert Altman who, sadly, passed away a few months ago. Any time Altman was asked about his influences, he would say that he couldn’t recall the names of the filmmakers who inspired him, because their films were so bad that he made sure to do the exact opposite. Smokin’ Aces is that kind of film, and in a few years, if he keeps it up, no one is going to remember Carnahan’s name. I have the distinct feeling that maybe that won’t be such a bad thing. Alas, Carnahan perseveres and is looking toward the future, because a few weeks ago I read that Carnahan’s next project was a remake of Otto Preminger’s 1965 film, Bunny Lake is Missing. There was a big to do made about it, because Reese Witherspoon, who had signed on to star in the film, had suddenly left the project. What do you think? Creative differences maybe, or do you think she just finally got around to seeing Smokin’ Aces? I don’t know about you, but I’m going with the latter.

Read more articles by Clayton L. White