Despite combining the guns and coke from “Goodfellas,” Jeremy Piven from “Entourage,” and the intricate criminology and ensemble cast from “The Usual Suspects,” “Smokin’ Aces’” mundane plot and shallow characters provide a weak crutch upon which its starry, uneven cast leans.
Buddy ‘Aces’ Israel (Piven), an extremely successful lounge act, is the key witness in a case that could put all of American organized crime behind bars; inexplicably, no one aside from hotel security staff has been assigned to guard him. Having crossed a mobster, Israel’s life comes with a million dollar reward from anyone who ends it. An assortment of criminal types come out of the woodwork to finish him off and collect the reward.
Film has a long-established precedent for this kind of cast of misfit specialists (“Ocean’s Eleven,” “The Dirty Dozen,” et al.), but many of these characters are more weird than interesting. Few of them seem any good at their jobs in the first place.
To make matters worse, the large ensemble does not gel. Liotta has portrayed characters on both sides of the law, from mobster Henry Hill in “Goodfellas” to hard-hitting detective Henry Oak in “Narc,” and he delivers again as FBI agent Donald Carruthers. Screen veteran Andy Garcia also excels.
In a big departure from his previous role as a party animal in “Van Wilder,” Reynolds plays jaded young FBI agent Richard Messner, the clichéd junior sidekick who transforms from wet-behind-the-ears rookie into cynical veteran in the span of a few days in the field. Reynolds does the job, but the script hardly allows room for greatness.
Alicia Keys’ character, a lesbian contract killer who does business only with women and conjures up memories of Pam Grier’s Foxy Brown, promises to add something new to the mix of stock criminal characters. Unfortunately, writer-director Joe Carnahan does not allow his one leading woman to remain a strong individual for long, and he concludes that all she needs in her life is a man stronger than her.
The rest of the cast members deserve mention because they are accountable for some of the film’s inadequacy. Ben Affleck plays a bail-bondsman exactly as he played almost every other of his roles. Jeremy Piven is convincing as a loud, pushy entertainer who wants to elevate his status and make some real money. This role could not have been a challenge for Piven, who plays a loud, pushy agent for an entertainer who wants to elevate his status and make some real money on HBO’s “Entourage.” Piven remains in the same hotel suite for most of the 108-minute film, and he remains in the same mood for the duration of the film. The film provides no satisfactory explanation for why Israel would want to enter the world of organized crime to begin with.
Carnahan’s previous film, “Narc,” was gritty, gripping, and had a ring of truth to it. Apparently the writer/director got all the film noir out of his system with that project. “Smokin’ Aces” lacks that ring of truth, and provides the audience with little incentive to care for any of the characters. By the end, I hoped everyone would die, and the sooner the better.
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