Overblown Eye Candy

I recently saw the new Joe Carnahan flick, "Smokin' Aces." It was an entertaining diversion, and not necessarily a "Tarantino rip off," but there was definitely some Quentin in the DNA.

I'm sure by now everyone has seen the outstanding trailers (my favorite featured Spiderbait's cover of "Black Betty"), and I'm sad to say the movie itself doesn't quite follow through on the excitement they created. The plot (until the last 15 minutes) offers a smart and straightforward set up: sleazy Vegas magician Buddy "Aces" Israel has been cozy with the mob, but is going to turn state witness. The Feds try to protect him after a $1 million hit is put out on him, attracting an eclectic crew of deranged assassins aiming to collect.

The Good:
The music and cinematography are stellar.
The performances are uniformly excellent, though no one has a true "lead" role taking up a majority of the screen time. Jeremy Piven is great as the coked up Aces, Ryan Reynolds solid and believable in a less snarky role than usual and Alicia Keys makes a nice impression as one of the killers. Jason Bateman (of the late, lamented Arrested Development) is the real scene stealer and provides non-stop laughs during his moments on the screen.
The violence, while a bit over the top, is exciting and well shot.

The Bad:
The plot "twists" in the last few minutes are just not set up well (though they tried). While the "clues" are laid out for you, and then reviewed with a refresher course of flashbacks, they are a bit incoherent and ultimately, the major plot just collapses under its own portentous weight.
The roles are charismatically played and the lines given deliciously chewed, but the script just doesn't have enough snappy patter for this type of film with such wildly drawn characters.

Overall, a decent effort and an entertaining splatterfest, but not nearly as sharp as it could have, and should have, been. B-