Smokin' Aces is a stylish film, said Claudia Puig in USA Today. Trouble is, it's someone else's style. Director Joe Carnahan has borrowed just about every flourish in this movie from other directors. He mostly samples Quentin Tarantino, but Smokin' Aces also has flashes of Guy Ritchie, Martin Scorsese, and Rob Zombie. The plot, which takes 20 long minutes to set up, involves Buddy 'œAces' Israel (Jeremy Piven), a Vegas magician whose appetite for drugs and prostitutes has brought him too close to the mob. When he agrees to rat out his friends to the FBI, the Mafia promises $1 million to whichever assassin can kill him first. The rest of the film follows different crews of contract killers as they compete for the honor of 'œsmoking' Aces. The fast-paced, bloody movie is meant to be a slick ensemble thriller—like Ocean's Eleven with extra sadism, said Kevin Crust in the Los Angeles Times. The cast is mildly star-studded, with Ryan Reynolds, Ray Liotta, Ben Affleck, Alicia Keys, and a 'œscene-stealing Jason Bateman, the only character in the film whose screen time is regrettably short.' But even big names can't give this choppy movie any real energy. It's strange how trash has evolved over the years, said Owen Gleiberman in Entertainment Weekly. Smokin' Aces is glitzier than the usual junk the studios dump on audiences just after the new year. But it's not any better. January is still the place last year's terrible movies go to die; it's just 'œa snazzier, more depraved wasteland.'
Rating: R
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