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Summary:
A huge bounty is placed on jerkface Las Vegas performer Buddy "Aces" Israel after he decides to snitch on some mafiosos. Everyone that likes to kill for money comes out of the woodwork to do him in.

Review:
Upon seeing the previews I wasn't sure how much I'd like this movie. However, it is directed by Joe Carnahan, who did one of the best movies of 2002 that most people haven't seen called Narc. Freaking amazing movie that is! So there was a chance at some greatness coming from this latest installment.
Take the concept of Tarantino's (hate to go there, but this movie asks for it) Pulp Fiction use of oddball characters and chance meetings between each person from different parts of the movie, and throw it into a blender with Guy Ritchie's Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Once you've done that, pinch in a dab of retardation, hints of Soderberg goulash but with a more Italian Job-inspired F. Gary Gray incompetence, R&B celebrities trying to get into acting, and a potpourri of bad improvisation from a "staggering slew of superb casting". Then press the "chop" button and you've got Smokin' Aces!
Skip the first 25 minutes, since all you'll get is the same shit in different words from each of the introduced characters (a big bounty is put on Aces' head). Some unclassy introductions are made with each character, complete with freezeframe on their funny facial expressions and a name stamped on screen. This of course happens right after a silly flashback showing their quirks and non-conformist methods to their jobs. After that, it becomes a free-for-all attempt at hacking and slashing away at Buddy Israel. I guess hijinks ensue. Lots of blood flies, that's for sure. It just so happens that blood and gore in a movie like this doesn't work unless the fun factor is already thrown in.

Smokin' Aces is one of the WORST movies of 2007. I am not afraid to admit this. It fails as a comedy, as an action movie, as a mobster flick, as a "kinetic foray into excess", and most of all it fails to ENTERTAIN. That's its' biggest sin. Someone ought to have taken a lighter to the script and smoked a big fattie with it before it saw the green light that led to this disaster of filmmaking.

GRADE: F
TRIVIA: I would totally make out with Alicia Keys.

Reviewed 12/21/07