Great action, interesting story and unique characters. went in with low expectations and was pleasantly surprised. Never a dull moment.

a movie that tries so hard to be clever that it's annoying as all hell. lots of style and an interesting enough story and set up with little to no payoff. the ending tries so hard to be twisty and unpredictable, but it gives away too much and it's terribly contrived. In the end, i had the overwhelming feeling of being cheated. I give this movie a big fat "who cares?"

Ouch!!! I never thought a movie could be soooo bad in soo many ways! This comes off as a wannabe "Snatch"/"Pulp Fiction" that a 4th grader could have written and directed better. WTF is up with that "karate kid" on Ridlin? Does the explanation at the end make any sense? Is there really a reason to have that long "dramatic/sad" music playing for the whole last 30 minutes of the movie? Why is there a Good, Bad, and Ugly Clint Eastwood reference that no one will get with one of the Tremors??? I must admit, at least the first half was pretty cool, and the second half was bad enough to give me some of the most honest laughs in a movie since Borat. However, I can't help but mourn the tragic decision of Jeremy Piven starting his post-Entourage career with such a horribly bad movie. His acting in it is superb, and so are a few of the other actors (not the least of which is powerhouse Andy Garcia). But this is a very, very bad movie.… Expand

Great movie!!! It was funny and had great action. Even my girlfriend loved it and she usually watches chick flicks. Looks like most critics are dead wrong again.

Not the best movie in the world, but definitely made better by its cast. The only reason to watch from start to finish is not the thrilling action (which is broken into segments, interrupted by "emotional" parts for lack of a better word), but rather you want to see the cast flip out and shoot something. As an action movie, it's lacking good momentum. As a drama, it's lacking a decent storyteller's focus. Smokin' Aces fails if only because it tries to be both without having mastered one of its genres. Just watch it because Piven blows everyone else away with one of his best performances to date and call it a day.… Expand

I have to say that I really enjoyed the hell out of this movie. As an action junkie it had the type of gratuitous violence I crave. While it's not in the category of "True Romance" it still was entertaing.

Kind of like Paris Hilton: Stylish and thinks it's cool but who cares when it's garbage?

I hate to disagree with my man Joe Morgenstern at the WSJ, but I had a LOT of fun with this movie. I found myself jumping out of my seat laughing at some of the lines in this script. It's really a small movie, but the pacing is excellent, and though it's over-the-top bloody (just having to stare at Piven's face is the goriest part of the whole thing), it's just entertaining as hell. Alicia Keys is terrific in her role, by the way. Another hilarious cameo is by Matthew Fox of Lost. The story is a little convoluted (yet not difficult to follow) and the last 10 minutes or so are a little melodramatic, but I think you'll enjoy this one if you're not expecting the world (which I wasn't).… Expand

Nothing that we haven't seen already many, many times!! Complete waist of time and money!

The kind of movie critics would hate but their always wrong anyway. Not the best story but very entertaining.

The set up took too long, the fighting was too short and sporatic, and the ending was too bad.

I thought this would be an Americanized Snatch/Lock, Stock. It was predictable from the first 5 minutes. Not a bad film for the first half, and then, the whole thing just fell right off a cliff. The last half was agonizingly slow, a sleeper. Wait for DVD so you can turn it off in the middle. I don't think Ringwald G. saw the same movie.

J. Hoberman (as usual) is spot on. The main thing that ruins this movie is the overly-complicated backstory. I'm all for complicated plots (Lynch is a personal fav) but here it is just plain moronic. Carnahan is obviously a talented guy with a point of view, and if he just quit biting Tarantino and Richie he would do all right. "Narc" was an excellent detective movie, full of realism and shows that here I think he just plotted out this extremely complicated and outrageous narrative, and was so impressed with himself he decided to turn about 10 minutes worth of ideas into a 2-hour movie. I'm still a fan of the director, just not this film.… Expand

To simply state that it is just a Jeremy Piven movie is to be sorely mistaken. There was a great all-around cast, yet there was no central storytelling focus. Piven was indeed the best character in the movie, but Jason Bateman was phenomenal as the drunken lawyer, Ben Affleck as the dopey, bail bondsman with a southern accent, and the hit men were all central in making the movie go ballistic. However, Piven, not Ryan Reynolds, held the movie together for most of the movie, and without him, the story lost focus and tried to be too emotional. But by then, you could care less, especially when you learn that the joke was on us all along, for thinking that it is a real gangsta' movie. What it was in return, were nuggets of good, solid, golden acting from all of the cast, not just Piven. And while Piven did a great job, and the story should've surrounded his character, it wasn't too different from Entourage's version of Ari Gold (which is an awesome show, by the way, you should watch it, way better than this film)--nor was I surprised by his brilliant acting--but it adds to Piven's resume and versatility as one of the best supporting actors that should have his own movie some day without the directors or writers getting in the way, because he is just that good. Smokin' Aces, however, falls just short of being a great movie, just a mindless action movie that attempts at a successful plot, but falls just short of it.… Expand

Seeing the cast flip out and shoot something is action. The film does exactly that. Just to let you know, Mr. Critic, Piven, by the way, was great, and so was the cast. I loved the acting, the dialogue, and the setup for the action. Ryan Reynolds was alright, although I thought he overacted at times, but he's still a good actor.

Rip roaring excellent adventure. Not clever at all but who cares?

All of this Bloodshed for one man's heart? What a terrible ending!!! You know, you can find organ donors from people other than your own family members. Awful! Going into it and even in the first few moments of the film I thought that this was going to be a swell film with the introduction of what appeared to a slew of hot shot world assassins and a good story line later dissolved into a unholy mess. Not enough strong characters, thin story line but the action was great I thought. Very ambitious attempt, but too ambitious!!! Way too much that needed fruther thought/development. Bummer...… Expand

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.

This movie was incredible. It had some nice, intense parts, a good amount of violence, and an awesome story. I thought it was done very well, and that there wasn't anything wrong with it. There was a nice amount of characters, so the story never got boring. I can't possibly see how anyone would think the action was stale? Cops, Assassins, Mafia, you really can't go wrong. Definitely a must rent.… Expand

Movie makers need to learn to leave the Guy Richie movies up to Guy Richie. Otherwise, we end up with this crap.

I don't know why I'm being so generous with my rating because I couldn't wait for the film to end. Well, that's not exactly true - I did wait for it to end. But that's it, I sat there waiting. Not enjoying.

Crappy movie, flat like a playing card, almost fell asleep. I hate Reynolds, horrible actor... Piven is funny.

I haven't seen so much as a preview for the movie so i had no expectations, i picked it up as an instinct buy and wasn't as disappointed as I'm reading in the comments i should have been. its an action movie and there only job are to provide action and make u not fall asleep during the movie so it did its job and thats all i ask. and the scenes without action were just build-up suspense snippets to get u ready for the finale, which was awesome...nuff said… Expand

It was what you would say ok it had a lot of good action parts but over all unrealistc and stupid.

What was writer/director Joe Carnahan thinking? Guess we'll never know, at least by watching this aborted, mismatched, convoluted, incredulous attempt at Gangster Culture. Joe?...we're worried about you.

It was good in parts and the cast list was impressive. Alicia Keys looks hot! A fair bit of stylised action and high octane gunplay but ultimately the story is a pretty weak one. The script didn't really seem sharp enough and doesn't compete with the likes of a Tarantino movie which it plainly is trying to imitate. There was far too much complex narrative both at the beginning and end of the movie to explain the set up and the conclusion, giving you the unsatisfactory sense of only watching half a movie with the other half being essentially read to you in fast forward! The ending was pretty disappointing given the carnage that had gone before hand. Having said that it's worth seeing but it's nothing special and probably will spawn a sequel in some shape or form.… Expand

This movie was only decent. It started off strong and a lot of fun, but it was never great. But oh oh oh. Why must this happen? The ending. The stupid stupid ending. The ending makes you think back on the film, and makes you say "so if this happens, why would they even do that?"

I thought it was a truly good action movie with a satisfying ending!

Yo, man! Ease up, critics! Piven was phenomenal! He is my homeboy, and my only reason for watching, to see him coked out, and not about a bunch of guns poppin' although there were some crazy good characters. It's action flick, what do you expect? Not all movies are going to be the Godfather, Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, or Mafia even. But I think it was better than Mafia, I enjoyed Smokin' Aces because it entertained me! And that ending was touching so back off critics!… Expand

If the film was supposed to be moral "(the moral being don't kill"), it missed its mark big time. But as an action-packed film with dialogue, it works. It jumps around from character to character and though you'd like more lines from each one (well, some more preferably than others), the end kind of bottoms out by just concluding that they were father and son by introducing the John Heller character early with the "he plans to change faces multiple times" and guess what? the mob boss had 15 operations! okay, from a plot standpoint, the film gets kind of cheesy. But face it, the story line itself isn't going to win an Oscar (nor probably its director anytime soon, not that I have anything against him, but his first film, Blood, Guts, and Octane doesn't exactly suggest best picture), but hell, it was damn good and fine acting, and it entertained the hell out of me for about 60-80% of the movie. So the film wasn't bad. And for that, I credit.… Expand

A little hard to follow all the different characters at first, but this was a fun action film until the last 5 minutes, when it decided to get all serious with the Ryan Reynolds character. Snooze.

The film gives highly unlikeable characters who we seem to need to root for, while the action is stale and contrived.

Great action, muddled plot, wannabe gangsta movie turned FBI cop drama, with great lines from Jason Bateman formerly of Arrested Development and HBO's Jeremy Piven of Entourage (they should've given them more lines) = mediocrely good, and mediocrely bad. (I don't think I'm using real words, but whatever.) Fine acting performances all around, Common and Alicia Keys were good in their first-time roles, and Ben Affleck was also good in his short cameo stint. The gangsta turned FBI cop drama I thought was crap, that the FBI controlled the last strains of the mob, although the mob is ordering hits and killing people who shouldn't be involved anyways, and while the two FBI agents were sent out on an eventually pointless mission, I did love the action sequences, the drama, and classic Jeremy Piven acting. Also, the most dramatic role from Ryan Reynolds I've seen yet. I'd like to rate this movie lower, but the action scenes were too brilliant. I'm caught, torn in the middle.… Expand

"Smokin' Aces" introduces too many characters, too quickly, and none of them are particularly memorable(with the exception of Georgia(Alicia Keys) and Sharice(Taraji P. Henson)). Admittedly, the idea of a magician(Jeremy Piven) who aspires to be Michael Corleone(or Tony Montana) is amusing, but the double-life aspect would've been funnier had Buddy(Piven) still been an active entertainer. The trip to Las Vegas isn't the joyride it should've been, because this filmmaker doesn't write clever and memorable dialogue like Quentin Tarantino; and once we've arrived at sin city, he doesn't quite match Richard Rodriguez's dubious talent of staging violent mayhem that sickens, as well as entertains. Two actors, both women, who against considerable odds(this is a guys' night out kind of flick) overcome their mediocre dialogue are singer-songwriter Keys, who is surprisingly self-assured as a hit-woman; and Henson, who provides "Smokin' Guns" with any semblance of humanity in the midst of all that flowing blood and testosterone. Without their presence, their counterbalance against the coked-up hos, "Smokin' Guns" would be answering charges of misogyny by people who hate hip-hop.… Expand

This movie was really trying to be unique, cool and funny. Unfortunately, it did not seem to know how and the requests for comedy and even sympathy from the audience at some points were just awkward to the point of being offensive. Out of this huge cast, there are maybe 3 like-able characters, but their screen time is diluted by dull boring characters/actors and they rarely interact with anybody aside from whom they've been with the entire movie, even though there is a huge potential for some interesting combinations of characters. Anyway...this movie's crap, don't see it.… Expand

Great movie, not much action as the trailer hyped but a great story to support it.

Violent, vulgar, crude, and obscene--another moronic movie to keep the masses happy while our country sinks into the cesspool of decline.

Enjoyable movie to the end. All flash and gore so I wasn't really up to par with the whole movie. It starts hard and finishes hard. The characters aren't the easiest to follow, but the movie was an enjoyable one.

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!!

Outstanding, but predictable, and shows how you can do a u-turn in the middle of a movie. But non-stop action and Ryan Reynolds play a pivatel role.

The laughs are great (The karate kid was one of the funniest moments I've seen in film all year), the is great (what you wanted), the acting is decent (Ryan Reynolds is the Pauly Shore of our time and should never be given any role that would be taken half-seriously and be paid for it), and the drama is bad (what you didn't care about). This isn't Pulp Fiction or Lock Stock, this is just a weekend rental in the same vein that chooses style over substance rather than an equal helping of both.… Expand

Smokin Aces; C+ What a rush. This movie starts out fast and just never stops. It's shot in a very interesting, almost graphic-novel style, it's deliberately over-the-top, it's very funny, and doesn't take itself seriously. Amazing music, too. It's unfortunately WAY too hard to follow. There's tons and tons of characters (a whose-who of celebrities) and some just don't seem fleshed out enough. At times I was kind of clueless as to what was going on. I think the movie really could have used some "down time" to explain the situation a bit more clearly. Neat plot twist at the end, though. And Jeremy Piven as Buddy Israel offers one hell of an amazing performance. Ben Affleck also (surprisingly) makes a good impression here, even though his role in the movie is a lot smaller than you'd think. Alicia Keys is pretty awesome as well. Overall....maybe worth a rental for a bizarre, funny rush but then again, if you're not a fan of kinetic action, skip it. The action never stops. And it's pretty hard to follow.… Expand

it was ok. there was not as much action as i expected and the ending was dumb and confusing. If it wasn't 4 Jeremy Piven then this movie would have sucked.. Should've made the movie different

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

Im a bit shocked by the low scores, I enjoyed it. I thought it featured good acting by a good cast, Great action, and a good story that featured a very satisfying ending that you didnt see coming.