SMOKIN' ACES

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Penthouse Bloodbath

Joe Carnahan’s Mad, Mad, Mad Hit Man/Woman Movie
By Cole Smithey

Writer/director Joe Carnahan (see "Blood, Guts, Bullets and Octane" and "Narc") makes an overreaching but inspired effort at reinventing the dumb-gangsters-with-big-guns motif that Quentin Tarantino created and continues to modify. On a certain level, "Smokin’ Aces" is like watching a Robert Altman action movie (although Altman never made one) fueled by steroids and caffeine.

A couple of dozen colorful and violent characters converge on Lake Tahoe’s Nomad casino where Las Vegas illusionist-turned-mob wannabe Buddy "Aces" Israel (Jeremy Piven) waits, sequestered in a heavily guarded penthouse suite, to turn state’s evidence on Mafia kingpin Primo Sparazza (Joseph Ruskin).

An erroneous rumor quickly spreads through the underworld that Sparazza has put a $1,000,000 hit out on Aces. Several groups of amateur and professional hit men (and women) take the bait. FBI agents Donald Carruthers (Ray Liotta) and Richard Messner (Ryan Reynolds) are dispatched to help protect Aces from the onslaught. They arrive not knowing that an infiltration of killers has already arrived that will put an X over many an eye before the truth about Primo Sparazza is exposed.

"He said the shit could get hot, could get heavy. I say cool. ‘Cause I got two of the hottest, heaviest, bitches alive."

Assassin broker Loretta Wyman (Davenia McFadden) relates her laconic description of Georgia Sykes (Alicia Keys) and her lesbian girlfriend Sharice Watters (Taraji Henson) to the feisty soul sisters in a diner scene that dips its toe into Tarantino’s territory of tangy exposition.

Carnahan’s razor-sharp postmodern dialogue infects the movie with an entertaining repartee that sizzles. However, he over-plots the movie with a tacked-on ending that ties up veiled loose ends and usurps the film’s overriding comedic tone with a dramatic phrasing that muddles rather than polishes.

For as amusing as it is to see Carnahan’s cartoon assassins clash in an inevitable barrage of bullets that penetrate windows and Kevlar alike, the main glory is in the build-up. Scene-stealer Jason Bateman milks the comedy as quack attorney Rupert "Rip" Reed, an overtly self-deprecating masturbation addict with a fetish for rabbit costumes and panties.

Reed hires slimy Las Vegas bail bondsman Jack Dupree (Ben Affleck) and his partners, an ex-vice cop Pete Deeks (Peter Berg) and Deeks’s disinterested former partner Hollis, to catch Aces for bail-jumping. The three characters are immediately familiar as marginally bad guys that we can root for. But Carnahan dodges expectation and throws in the first plot surprise of many. Only one of the trio will make it to the end of the story, albeit a few fingers short of the number he started out with.

Although surrounded by a seemingly countless number of well-drawn supporting characters Jeremy Piven’s Aces anchors the frenetic action swirling around him. Aces spends what he knows are his last hours habitually practicing with a deck of cards when he isn’t ordering up more prostitutes and snorting copious amounts of cocaine. Jeremy Piven’s sleight-of-hand work with cards is impressive.

The actor blithely uses his character’s dexterous skill to punctuate convoluted conversations with his assistants Sir Ivy (Common) and Hugo (Joel Edgerton). Piven remained Hollywood’s best-kept secret until the HBO television show "Entourage" gave him room to run.

The experience seems to have enriched and energized Piven’s approach to creating a character. The result is something full of absorbing layers of subtext. He doesn’t merely give himself over to the part, he invigorates the role with a pulsing rhythm of narcotic-driven emotion that ebbs and flows, creating pools of tangible sensation. Whether the drugs on Carnahan’s set were real or not matters little because Piven regulates every second of his dynamic performance to good effect.

"Smokin’ Aces" is an energetic action movie with more than a few genuine surprises, coupled with notable ensemble performances. Joe Carnahan was originally due to direct "Mission Impossible: III" but was unceremoniously taken off of the project before it went into production. It’s a shame really because he would certainly have taken the franchise to an even darker and more exposed place than J.J. Abrams was willing to go.

Nonetheless, Joe Carnahan is a force of nature as a writer and director. His ability to extract remarkable performances from his actors is consistently evident. Ray Liotta, who did terrific work on Carnahan’s "Narc," adds palpably with an expressive performance as a FBI agent on his last big mission. For what it is, "Smoking' Aces" will blast your socks off.

Rated R. 108 mins.