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: 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…