Review: Smokin’ Aces

UK release date: 12th January

After his thoughtful and engaging cop thriller Narc (2001), writer/director Joe Carnahan wildly misses the mark here with this Tarantino-style black comedy.

When Las Vegas showman Buddy “Aces” Israel (Entourage’s Jeremy Piven) agrees to turn FBI informant, his former Mob cronies put out a hit on him. Enter a motley assortment of assassins ranging from Ben Affleck to singer Alicia Keys (who should stick to the day job), with Ray Liotta and Ryan Reynolds thrown into the mix as Federal agents out to protect their asset.

However, instead of crafting characters to laugh with (or even at), Carnahan indulges in a sniggering schoolboy obsession with casual mutilation and silly wigs. It’s safe to say the director has played his joker here — and lost.

Radio Times rating:

*

UK cinema certificate 18
Running time 108mins

Review by Stella Papamichael

News: Ben Affleck

Affleck’s next project, following his moustachioed turn in this week’s Smokin’ Aces, is going to be from behind the camera. As writer/director of Gone, Baby, Gone, he’ll be hoping to revive some of the Oscar-winning success he had as co-screenwriter (with best buddy Matt Damon)  of Good Will Hunting, and has cast his brother, Casey Affleck in the lead. Based on a novel by the same person who wrote the book on which the Oscar-winning Sean Penn flick Mystic River was based, the Boston-set detective thriller revolves around the kidnapping of a four-year-old girl, and also features the likes of Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris, and Mark Wahlberg’s oft-forgotten brother Robert.

News: Jeremy Piven

Swiftly making a name for himself as far and away the best thing in the Hollywood-set sitcom Entourage, Piven is venturing into the world of movies with gusto in this week’s Smokin’ Aces, and has a fair few more big screen outings on the way.

He’ll next be seen in The Kingdom, a somewhat topical thriller revolving around a US investigation into a spate of bombings in the Middle East, alongside the likes of Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner and Chris Cooper, and lending his voice talents to the animated comedy Igor, alongside Christian Slater, Steve Buscemi and John Cleese.

The film most likely to get him into the big time, however, is as yet untitled – he will play an estate agent planning a lucrative development in an unspoiled forest who finds that the area’s animals have decided to conspire against him. As he’s proved time and again with Entourage, he can do unlikeable but entertaining with the best of them, so an estate agent could be the ideal role…

News: Andy Garcia

After cropping up in this week’s crime caper Smokin’ Aces, Garcia will be continuing in his favourite genre – albeit in a somewhat more experimental manner – with his next outing, playing the wonderfully classically-named criminal character “Fingers” in the odd-sounding The Air That I Breathe (see here for more).

Then, due out in June, he’ll be returning to his sleazy role for the third Danny Ocean movie, Ocean’s Thirteen, alongside many of the A-listers of the previous two outings, including George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Elliott Gould and Don Cheadle, as well as newcomer to the series Al Pacino, with whom he last appeared in 1990’s frequently underrated The Godfather: Part III.

Finally, he”ll be opting for a change of pace – but an equally star-studded list of co-stars – for The Last Full Measure, based on the true story of a group of Vietnam veterans who campaigned to have their long-dead comrade’s heroism recognised by the United States Congress. Robert Duvall, Laurence Fishburne, Morgan Freeman and Bruce Willis will make up the rest of the cast, so it should be good stuff.

News: Joe Carnahan

The writer/director of this week’s Smokin’ Aces has a slew of new projects on the go, from the promising remake of the 1965 thriller Bunny Lake is Missing, to star Reese Witherspoon, to the incredibly promising White Jazz, set in 1950s LA, based on a novel by James Ellroy (of LA Confidential and The Black Dahlia fame), and set to star George Clooney. With a couple of others also planned, including a film based on the assassination of infamous Colombian gangster Pablo Escobar, Killing Pablo, it looks like Carnahan could well be one to watch over the coming years…