Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your
contribution is not tax-deductible.)
PayPal Acct: 
Feedback: 
Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):
| [ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, [2], 3, 4 ] |
| Subject: Smokin' Aces | |
|
Author: Mr. Bungle |
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
Date Posted: 04:22:53 01/22/08 Tue Author Host/IP: c-71-197-21-7.hsd1.mi.comcast.net/71.197.21.7 In reply to: Jimbo 's message, "Movies I've Seen Recently" on 03:28:07 01/22/08 Tue It's kind of strange to wake up, take a shower, and immediately go see a film like Smokin' Aces. I just barely drank enough orange juice to keep a handle on it. The opening of Smokin' Aces is like an expository version of one of those 18 minute long tracking shots you see in a DePalma flick, just a lot faster. It's a constant stream of information, but the beauty is that it gets told with several cinematic devices that work together in a sort of roundtable fashion. It utilizes flash backs, cutting to alternate characters in different locations while they're all telling the same story in unison, and even has an occasional flirtation with plot coherence. In this manner you get to meet (albeit briefly) everyone in the ensemble of cops, mobsters, junkies, lesbians, and even a trio of psychotic hillbillies. If you've seen one of the commercials then you pretty much know the story. Buddy "Aces" Israel (Jeremy Piven) is a Vegas showman specializing in the sort of stupid stage magic shit that makes me wonder why people go to Vegas. He ingratiates himself with the local La Cosa Nostra, specifically Primo Sparazza (Joseph Ruskin), and once he gets a taste of the drugs, women, hedonism, and danger that go along with the good life, he begins to foster delusions he is a gangster. But he's not, and when a job gets botched he rats out his boss. The film opens on Donald Carruthers (Ray Liotta) and Richard Messner (Ryan Reynolds), sitting in a surveillance van, punch-drunk from trying to eavesdrop on Primo and his henchmen for 16 hours. They find out Primo has learned of Buddy's betrayal, and is offering the seemingly small sum of ONE MILLION DOLLARS to anyone that can take Buddy out. And remove his heart. And deliver it to Primo. The Feds are on it, offering Buddy plea deals and witness relocation, while coordinating a defense for their witness, who is now being talked about by cops, mobsters, bail bondsmen, Booger from Revenge of the Nerds, and a cadre of very colorful contract killers. And like I said; if you've seen the commercials the rest fills itself in. How many fucked up and cool professional assassins does it take to kill a tweaked out snitch? You might be surprised. Director Joe Carnahan hasn't done a 180 from his watershed film Narc, but Smokin' Aces is different. Injected with a healthy dose of QT he maintains the gritty, '70's vibe of Narc, but extrapolates it to some fast paced cutting and gory hyper-real action sequences (.50 caliber bullets and chainsaws in the ass). It's like he moved into the '80's realm of genre action films, but with a 2007 slickness and attention to well-timed violence that only dates it yet again. In a way that makes it feel somewhat disposable, but it isn't; mainly because there is a gravitas to how Carnahan has written the characters. The ensemble cast is directed in an very agile fashion. Be it the opening sequences when you realize Ben Affleck can really act alongside Peter Berg, or that Ray Liotta is still a badass, or that for some reason Ryan Reynolds is believable as a grizzled and pissed-off cop who takes no shit, or that Alicia Keys is believable at all. They're all testaments to Carnahan's script and direction. His cast (large as it is) runs with it, and well. They revel in the lack of a moral center while serving one. But therein lay the main problem with Smokin' Aces. There are only a couple of characters that you could actually root for. They aren't the ones you expect and when you do find a likeable character it's only because the script commands it. It knows it has to have something resembling a lead actor that is sympathetic, so it falls on Reynolds. He does deliver, as well as Alicia Keys as one half of a lesbian assassin team. Though their paths only cross at one point in the film, it's at that point you know who you want to see make it out alive. The dialogue is another problem. It balances a convoluted (more so then it would seem on the surface) story, with hyperbolic, too-cool-for-school pop-culture colloquialism that just makes you think of Tarentino, and the many writers that didn't write as well as this. Granted, Pulp Fiction is an old movie now, but it was followed by 10 years of imitators that Smokin' Aces probably wants to ignore. Fortunately, Smokin' Aces is good enough to make that suspension of "been there, done that" disbelief possible. It's high points are well shot violence, solid acting, assured direction, drugs, insane contract killers, and some tits. I was warned this would be the case, and it thankfully delivered on all fronts. It's a well crafted film that's as entertaining as a getting a blowjob from your girl in the back row of a packed movie theatre. And just as reckless. P.S. The presentation of the film was excellent. The seats at Hollywood rock, the sound was awesome, and the picture was crystal. I wish Pan's Labyrinth were playing there. P.P.S. I want to father caramel kids with Alicia Keys. Mr. B. [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] |
| Subject | Author | Date |
| Re: Smokin' Aces | Mr. Bungle | 04:50:08 01/22/08 Tue |
|
||
| Re: Smokin' Aces | Jimmy | 04:56:50 01/22/08 Tue |
|
Forum timezone: GMT-14 VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB: Before posting please read our privacy policy. VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems. Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved. |