Film

Smokin' Aces (2006)

Director: Joe Carnahan

Synopsis

Two FBI agents must keep Buddy ‘Aces’ Israel alive so he can turn state’s evidence against mobster Primo Sparazza.

Movie review

From Time Out London

This indulgent, luridly mounted actioner sees Hollywood golden boy Jeremy Piven horribly miscast as the crestfallen Buddy ‘Aces’ Israel, a coke-addled Vegas showman and FBI informant turned sitting duck as he waits for one of a number of eccentric mercenaries to bust down his door and fulfil a hit. Just as Carnahan’s previous ‘Narc’ paid homage to such 1970s cop thrillers as ‘The French Connection’, with ‘Smokin’ Aces’ he’s chosen to salute the kitsch, style-over-substance chase comedies of the 1980s, making this a poor man’s ‘Midnight Run’. The film’s whimsicality makes it a big step back for the director, who shows he has little handle over anything bar garish action set-pieces, replacing narrative structure and character development with Ben Affleck in a barrow-boy hat and Andy Garcia as an FBI chief with a bizarre accent. On the plus side, Jason Bateman supplies an amusing cameo as a drunken, cross-dressing lawyer and there’s a soulful turn from Alicia Keys as a slinky assassin. Other than that, it’s just a big old mess.

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