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Ben Affleck, Andy Garcia, Alicia Keys, Ray Liotta, Jeremy Piven, Ryan Reynolds, Peter Berg, Taraji Henson, Chris Pine, Martin Henderson, Jason Bateman. Comedy/action/crime adventure. Written by Joe Carnahan. Directed by Joe Carnahan.

FILM SYNOPSIS: This is a dark action comedy from Joe Carnahan, the acclaimed director of Narc, about the interlocking tales of high stakes and low-lifes such as Mob boss Primo Sparazza, who has taken out a hefty contract on Buddy "Aces" Israel (Piven)—a sleazy magician who has agreed to turn state’s evidence against the Vegas mob. The FBI, sensing a chance to use this small-time con to bring down big-target Sparazza, places Aces into protective custody-under the supervision of two agents (Reynolds and Liotta) dispatched to Aces' Lake Tahoe hideout. When word of the price on Aces’ head spreads into the community of ex-cons and cons-to-be, it entices bounty hunters, thugs-for-hire, and double-crossing mobsters to join in the hunt.

PREVIEW REVIEW: In the early ‘80s, a title such as Smokin’ Aces would have indicated a good-ol’-boy car chase movie starring Burt Reynolds and Loni Anderson. Such is not the case here. This is a movie about several hit men (and women) on various steps of the evolution chain bent on killing an informer in order to earn a million bucks.

It starts out interestingly enough, with a moving narrative you have to pay attention to, fast pacing, and editing that gives the production a manic energy. But suddenly elements of bizarreness and gruesomeness found in Tarantino’s Kill Bill and Gibson’s Mad Max begin to pour forth. The gore fest quickly gets underway. Examples: an FBI agent in a gun battle with a demonic killer inside, get this, an elevator; a Three Stooges-like hit crew straight out of a horror show, who use chainsaws to cut up people for the fun of it; two attractive hit-women with a vocabulary made up mostly of the f-word; there’s even a nutcase kid with a serious – make that demented – attitude and a penchant for martial arts.

There’s lots of dark-as-night humor and the action is endless (much like the running time), but like every action film these days, it does its best to outdo the others – not with style or story, but with endless variations on how to humiliate or devastate the human body. Okay, it’s not to be taken seriously, but there are so many of these movies containing macabre humor and debauched behavior, as well as excessive bloodbaths. Each time we attend, we find ourselves getting pummeled rather than entertained. What’s more, this one seems to have no moral point. It’s got established actors and some amusing dialogue, but it’s just about maiming and killing people. If there is a point, it gets drowned in a sea of blood.

There was a film in the early 1970s called The Wild Bunch, directed by Sam Peckinpah. That rogue filmmaker began the use of stark brutality in order to further a storyline. Indeed, violence became a character in that particular film. Some defended his use of graphic violence, while others were appalled. Though there are subplots exposing corruption and double-cross in Smokin’ Aces, I wonder what Peckinpah would think if he saw how his “true-to-life” bloodshed has become a tradition, one to be out-blasted by each successive effort.

Distributor: Universal