DEAL OR NO DEAL : Joe Carnahan’s ‘Smokin’ Aces’ [6/10]

Published on: January 16th, 2007

It might seem a tad early to be indulging so heavily in nostalgia for an era so recent as the early-to-mid nineties, but Smokin' Aces proves a moderately enjoyable, breezily derivative, suitably glossy-looking homage to the Tarantino of Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, and the Scorsese GoodFellas and Casino, the Bryan Singer of The Usual Suspects. For writer-director Carnahan, it's a case of 'back to the future' in more ways than one, as he's back on flashily blood-spattered turf of his 1998 debut Blood, Guts, Bullets and Octane - itself an unashamed attempt to cash in on the Tarantino-fuelled appetite for snappily violent indie cinema. Though not very widely seen, BGB&O served its purpose of bringing him to the attention of Hollywood: his follow-up, twisty policier Narc (2002), while a stylishly atmospheric vehicle for stars Ray Liotta (whom may reckoned unlucky not to be Oscar-nominated) and Jason Patric, ultimately didn't quite convince that Carnahan was yet ready for a step up to the big leagues.

Nevertheless, his name was subsequently linked for a long time to no less a project that Mission : Impossible III – a gig which in the end went to TV whizz-kid J J Abrams (of Lost fame), leaving Carnahan scrambling for a quick replacement. What he came up with is Smokin' Aces, a noisily overcooked, blackly comic thriller whose principal demographic would appear to be the hyperactive, trigger-happy teenage boys who regard Grand Theft Auto as pinnacle of cultural achievement. And the whole thing is executed with just enough irreverent, hyperkinetic chutzpah that the target audience will lap it up – perhaps more on DVD than in the cinema.

General audiences, however, may soon tire of the in-your-face stylishness of Carnahan's direction (watch and listen how he cuts between scenes to link similar actions, or similar-sounding lines of dialogue together), the too-cool-for-school dialogue (much of it nudgingly self-aware and post-modern, as when someone remarks early on that "everyone is gonna leave the theater grinning!"), and the sheer size of his exhaustingly large gallery of dramatis personae – the picture is so crowded there's barely room for anything that might pass for character-development. His structural templates would appear to be knockabout TV cartoons of the Wacky Races, and those breakneck comedies of the sixties and seventies in which various "teams" of participants vied to get their hands on some fabulous loot.

Here the big prize is the fabled sum of $1m, which various hit-men and women learn will be theirs if they can bump off a certain stool-pigeon before this "great white whale of snitches" can testify in a case which the FBI believe may well bring down the major players of American organised crime. Said 'canary' is Robert Israel (Entourage's Jeremy Piven), stage-name Buddy, nickname 'Aces' – a coke-snorting, card-sharp Las Vegas illusionist/entertainer ("do you dare to be amazed?!") who got in thick with various Mafia personnel before realising he'd stumbled way out of his depth. When the FBI – represented by veteran Carruthers (a surprisingly slimline Liotta) and his young partner Messner (Ryan Reynolds, who has to play things pretty straight in the closest thing the ensemble has to a lead), under the leadership of Locke (an amusingly crisp Andy Garcia) – deduce that Israel is to be bumped off ("somebody's gonna dead this fool,") they race to the skyscraping Lake Tahoe hotel whose spectacular penthouse is the magician's opulent residence ("total cliche, this guy"). At the same time, the various sets of contract-killers are closing in on the exact-same destination…

Bloody shenanigans duly ensue, as Carnahan switches between Israel – who's enduring a drug-fuelled crack-up as the pressure of his situation starts to hit home – and the various sets of good guys and bad guys. Most of the latter seem to have wandered in from other movies: a trio of Neo-Nazi survivalists (the 'Tremor brothers') who look like refugees from Mad Max, but could also have popped up in one of the Coens' wilder flights of fancy (likewise a shadowy figure known only as "the mysterious Swede"); a master-of-disguise name (Tommy Flanagan) who, as his name (Laszlo Soot?!) indicates, is a cross between The Usual Suspects' Keyser Soze and Things To Do In Denver When You're Dead's Mr Shhhhhh, and whose fondness for prosthetics allows Carnahan a Mission Impossible in-joke (see also the casting of Lost's Matthew Fox in a cameo role); a pair of foxy African-American hit-women who could plausibly be the daughters of Pam Grier's Jackie Brown (one of them played by singer Alicia Keys, who makes for an unfeasibly chic and slinky type of mercenary); a trio of bail-bondsmen who also exude an Elmore Leonard type of vibe (one of them is even named Elmore, just in case we miss the point).

Among the latter is Ben Affleck, who deserves some type of good-sport acting award for managing to keep a straight face during the film's funniest, most audacious and off-the-wall sequence, in which his unconscious form becomes a kind of ventriloquist's dummy for Chris Pine's disarmingly loopy Darwin Tremor. This scene – which will no doubt feature prominently among the picture's DVD extras – pretty much justifies the price of admission on its own, though it's disappointing that Carnahan subsequently proves – despite a giddily rocketing bodycount – unable to replicate such a peak of delirious absurdity. Indeed, the final third of Smokin' Aces takes an unexpected – and not especially successful – detour into relative seriousness, with mournful strings replacing the well-chosen, effervescent pop-music soundtrack of the earlier stretches. The script gets increasingly bogged down in cumbersomely explaining a rather implausible and wildly over-elaborate twist relating to Israel's identity and the true nature of the Mafia's machinations – whereas it perhaps should have taken a leaf out of Tony Scott's Domino playbook and gone for an explosively and deliriously OTT finale. As it is, Smokin' Aces fizzles out somewhat, leaving little lasting impression – and suggesting that Carnahan is now content to 'stick' with his current mid-ranking position, rather than gamble his way to the high-rollers' table.

Neil Young
16th January, 2007

SMOKIN' ACES : [6/10] : USA (UK/Fr/US) 2006 (copyright-dated 2007) : Joe CARNAHAN : 109 mins (BBFC timing)
seen at Empire cinema, Gate complex, Newcastle-upon-Tyne (UK), 8th January 2007 – press show