In a pair of articles on the Filmwad site, Smokin' Aces is described as the most frustrating film in the history of cinema, and one in need of another hour of footage. While I disagree with one article in that I have seen films far more frustrating (X-Men 3 comes to mind), it would take a miracle of the most extreme proportions to convince me that Smokin' Aces is not both too long and too short. But I will get into that later. What is important to understand is that films based on stories and ideas with this kind of potential are an everyday event in Hollywood. A handful go to glory, a bigger handful live up to their potential, a larger handful fall short of their potential, and then a microscopic number screw it up as royally as is the case here. Yet, in spite of being so hideously flawed that it would otherwise be in the trash heap, Smokin' Aces also redeems itself with some great action sequences and awesome characters. The latter, however, becomes more frustrating for the editing reason I outlined earlier.
This is going to take some time to explain, so I will start with the bad. The cast of characters in any film where multiple criminals are fighting one another for the same goal is the single most important element. Films like Snatch or Lock, Stock, And Two Smoking Barrels get this right by recognising that the support characters are every bit as important as the leads. Smokin' Aces fouls this up by having a couple of characters one wants to follow, a lot of characters who fail to make so much as a blip, and a handful of characters that leave the viewer wondering what the screenwriter was smoking. In spite of being the whole focus of the film, "Aces" Israel gets about ten minutes of screen time. I disagree with the other choice Filmwad made regarding the other good character. I find Ray Liotta's performance in the film far more compelling than Jason Bateman's, but since both characters are so underutilised they utterly frustrate, the difference between them is neither here nor there.
It is the worst characters that count against Smokin' Aces, because they also happen to be those with the greatest share of screen time. Alicia Keys and her staff are sheer torture to listen to, and their every scene is accompanied by the audience wishing they would just shut up and get the hell off the screen. Not that they are alone in this. Zach Cumer's character is not only an incredibly bad stereotype that belongs only in the mind of a schoolteacher from twenty years ago, he constantly begs the question of why nobody is slapping the little moron so hard his eyes rattle. Of course, answering the question of what happened to Martin Henderson's character requires some footage, but there are far more economical and endearing ways to do this. Ones that do not require the screenwriters to add a pair of characters who are either vacant or just plain irritating. Like the Tremor brothers or Soot, Zach Cumer comes off as having been spliced in from a very different film that I would not even consider worthy of a rental.
Adding to the problems is that the directorial style is, put simply, awful. The fight between the Tremor brothers and hotel security had all the makings of a gorefest on the level of RoboCop. But what RoboCop had that Smokin' Aces did not is a director who understands that audiences need to see clearly what is going on for the proverbial money shots to have any real impact. In other words, payoffs are wonderful, but only when the setup is sufficient to make them so. The setups in the battle between the Tremors and hotel security are confusing, badly edited, and badly shot. Hence, what should have been the equivalent of the raid on the drug factory is instead a series of cutaways so uninvolving they reinforce the fact that the film cannot decide what its tone is meant to be. However, it is not until the final act, when the film attempts a twist that fails to, as Ryan Reynolds so elegantly puts it, make it make sense. In fact, as a result of this twist explanation for the rest of the film's events makes it make even less sense than it does thirty minutes in.
As a result of these severe plot holes, editorial goofs, and comparisons to films that turned out so much greater, it is hard to see Smokin' Aces as anything but a monumental blunder. It is fortunate, then, that some solid performances from Ray Liotta and Andy Garcia keep the whole thing from dissolving into total disarray. In spite of a plot that frequently fails to make sense from a logical point of view, a small handful of actors keep the audience invested in caring about the fates of their characters. That is a feat that, in a film as messed up as is the case here, takes talent. The initial explanation of Buddy Israel's importance to the Mafia and FBI alike also does a great job of hooking the audience with a compelling and layered fable, but it also promises so much that the rest of the film does not deliver. Hence, Smokin' Aces is not quite the most frustrating film that I have watched in my lifetime, but I would definitely put it somewhere in the top ten. Considering how many previous attempts Joe Carnahan has made to create a masterpiece, I suspect this really is the best he is capable of. Which is a shame.
I gave Smokin' Aces a five out of ten. It is a good film to show to students in direction and writing as they attempt to list all the things Carnahan gets wrong and right.
This is going to take some time to explain, so I will start with the bad. The cast of characters in any film where multiple criminals are fighting one another for the same goal is the single most important element. Films like Snatch or Lock, Stock, And Two Smoking Barrels get this right by recognising that the support characters are every bit as important as the leads. Smokin' Aces fouls this up by having a couple of characters one wants to follow, a lot of characters who fail to make so much as a blip, and a handful of characters that leave the viewer wondering what the screenwriter was smoking. In spite of being the whole focus of the film, "Aces" Israel gets about ten minutes of screen time. I disagree with the other choice Filmwad made regarding the other good character. I find Ray Liotta's performance in the film far more compelling than Jason Bateman's, but since both characters are so underutilised they utterly frustrate, the difference between them is neither here nor there.
It is the worst characters that count against Smokin' Aces, because they also happen to be those with the greatest share of screen time. Alicia Keys and her staff are sheer torture to listen to, and their every scene is accompanied by the audience wishing they would just shut up and get the hell off the screen. Not that they are alone in this. Zach Cumer's character is not only an incredibly bad stereotype that belongs only in the mind of a schoolteacher from twenty years ago, he constantly begs the question of why nobody is slapping the little moron so hard his eyes rattle. Of course, answering the question of what happened to Martin Henderson's character requires some footage, but there are far more economical and endearing ways to do this. Ones that do not require the screenwriters to add a pair of characters who are either vacant or just plain irritating. Like the Tremor brothers or Soot, Zach Cumer comes off as having been spliced in from a very different film that I would not even consider worthy of a rental.
Adding to the problems is that the directorial style is, put simply, awful. The fight between the Tremor brothers and hotel security had all the makings of a gorefest on the level of RoboCop. But what RoboCop had that Smokin' Aces did not is a director who understands that audiences need to see clearly what is going on for the proverbial money shots to have any real impact. In other words, payoffs are wonderful, but only when the setup is sufficient to make them so. The setups in the battle between the Tremors and hotel security are confusing, badly edited, and badly shot. Hence, what should have been the equivalent of the raid on the drug factory is instead a series of cutaways so uninvolving they reinforce the fact that the film cannot decide what its tone is meant to be. However, it is not until the final act, when the film attempts a twist that fails to, as Ryan Reynolds so elegantly puts it, make it make sense. In fact, as a result of this twist explanation for the rest of the film's events makes it make even less sense than it does thirty minutes in.
As a result of these severe plot holes, editorial goofs, and comparisons to films that turned out so much greater, it is hard to see Smokin' Aces as anything but a monumental blunder. It is fortunate, then, that some solid performances from Ray Liotta and Andy Garcia keep the whole thing from dissolving into total disarray. In spite of a plot that frequently fails to make sense from a logical point of view, a small handful of actors keep the audience invested in caring about the fates of their characters. That is a feat that, in a film as messed up as is the case here, takes talent. The initial explanation of Buddy Israel's importance to the Mafia and FBI alike also does a great job of hooking the audience with a compelling and layered fable, but it also promises so much that the rest of the film does not deliver. Hence, Smokin' Aces is not quite the most frustrating film that I have watched in my lifetime, but I would definitely put it somewhere in the top ten. Considering how many previous attempts Joe Carnahan has made to create a masterpiece, I suspect this really is the best he is capable of. Which is a shame.
I gave Smokin' Aces a five out of ten. It is a good film to show to students in direction and writing as they attempt to list all the things Carnahan gets wrong and right.