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Mixed or average reviews - based on 32 Critics What's this?

User Score

Mixed or average reviews- based on 98 Ratings

  • Starring: Jeremy Piven, Ray Liotta, Ryan Reynolds
  • Summary: In a series of interlocking tales of high stakes and low lifes, Mob boss Primo Sparazza has taken out a hefty contract on Buddy "Aces" Israel (Piven) -- a sleazy magician who has agreed to turn states 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 Ace's head spreads into the community of ex-cons and cons-to-be, it entices bounty hunters, thugs-for-hire, smokin' hot vixens and double-crossing mobsters to join in the hunt. With all eyes on Tahoe, this rogues' gallery collides in a comic race to hit the jackpot and tub out Aces. (Universal) Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 32
  2. Negative: 8 out of 32
  1. 75
    Best consumed with pizza and lots of brewskis, Joe Carnahan's Smokin' Aces is shamelessly and unapologetically a guy movie. It's lewd, crude and loaded with shootouts and hot lesbo action.
  2. 60
    Carnahan does have an oddball sense of comic timing; what his picture lacks in hilarity it recuperates with a well-developed, albeit mumbling, sense of the absurd.
  3. While the film bristles with cinematic verve, it also is as second-hand as an antique store.
  4. 38
    In the hands of the formerly promising director Joe Carnahan, this stylish, nihilistic, hugely derivative mash-up of Tarantino and Guy Ritchie (before wife Madonna ruined his career) is fun for roughly half an hour.

See all 32 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 29 out of 49
  2. Negative: 15 out of 49
  1. JustinR.
    10
    This movie will rock your socks off, this movie is nothing but action. [***SPOILER***]The way it ended was insane, all these people die just because of a simple heart transplant, I mean if that isn't crazy enough for you then I don't know what is. Expand
  2. Action packed, Well acted, with a twist ending that will leave you thinking "WTF!", Smokin' Aces is definently worth the watch and was a pretty enjoyable action flick. Expand
  3. MathewI.
    7
    I give this movie a strong 7 (76-78) and the Rolling Stone magazine can sum up my feeling about this movie the best, everybody else looking to give such a serious review about this movie and expecting a great masterpiece can SUCK IT !! Smokin Aces was as good as guilty pleasure get!! Expand
  4. Jonathans.
    4
    It's sad when so many people all think that the plot in this was confusing. There weren't really that many characters in total, the plot lines didn't really intersect much until the shoot-outs, and the plot's almost handed to you on a platter in the beginning. I watched this movie with the sole purpose to fill a brief need for brainless action, and I was mostly fulfilled. Carnahan's enthusiasm is welcome, but doesn't lend too much to the film in the end-- especially when his script is somewhat confused on what it wants to be, or which characters to sympathize with. A good example of this: we go through most of the movie with the assassins and the climax involves the multiple shoot-outs with the aforementioned-- and then, somehow, by the end of the film, we're being told we need to sympathize with the FBI agent, and feel something for his decision/inner turmoil (which wasn't done very well, so we didn't exactly care too much at all what he did, more or less about the "twist"). There were some parts where I thought "Ok, that was cool."-- such as the sniper scene on the seventh floor. But Israel (the character, not the country obviously), didn't really have much of a role in the film, except mope and get high; disappointing, since I was expecting it to be more along the lines that he would use some sort of magic trick or illusions to stay alive from the attacks or such-- why not? The film was already pretty over-the-top. But unlike Shoot 'Em Up, another high-octane action flick that was released around the same time (but was actually pretty entertaining), Smokin' Aces tries to hard to make something of plot and characters-- something that, in all honesty, weren't handled nearly well enough to warrant any empathy from the audience. If it were, as Shoot Em' Up did, to just say heck with plot, let's make this almost a parody of the genre by having about .5% of a plot-- that would have been much better. So other than Carnahan's punchy direction and a few good action sequences, this film doesn't have too much going for it. At least it's better than Domino (another multiple assassin/mobster movie)-- that movie was just exceedingly terrible. Smokin' Aces: reccommended for mindless movie night, or if you just want a brief action fix. Expand

See all 49 User Reviews

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