2008 Woodie Awards
Smokin' Aces' award-winning cast is overrated
Steven Martin
Issue date: 2/7/07 Section: Features
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"Smokin' Aces," from Universal is a good, not great movie about a would-be mob informant and all the people who want to kill him.
"Smokin' Aces" is the story of Buddy "Aces" Israel (Jeremy Piven), a magician who has no choice but to become a government witness in order to save himself from spending a lifetime in jail.
The only problem with this is that the mob doesn't want him to testify and puts out a million dollar hit on his life.
This, of course, brings every hit man and outright thug from across the globe to cash in on Buddy's life. Standing in the way and the only chance for survival is an F.B.I.-headed task force (led by Ryan Reynolds and Ray Liotta) whose only chance of making their case against a prominent Mafia crime family is to make sure Buddy remains breathing.
This movie has a great cast of established and up-and-coming Hollywood talent.
Everyone from Andy Garcia to newcomer Alicia Keys is in this movie, which leads to the movie's first of many problems.
With such a large assortment of talent at their disposal, the filmmakers have a hard time introducing all these different characters, and give them adequate film time to flesh out their characters and make them interesting to the movie- going audience.
In fact, on more than one occasion, I had trouble keeping track of who was who and what they were doing in this movie. This isn't to say that there isn't some stand-out performances to be found in "Smokin' Aces." Reynolds is a joy to watch act opposite screen vet Liotta.
Keys also gives a notable performance as hit woman Georgia Sykes. "Aces" is Keys' first movie. Although, for some strange reason, towards the end of the film, she seemed to forget she was performing in "Aces" and started to channel Whitney Houston in "The Bodyguard."
Also of note were the performances of Chris Pine, Kevin Durand and Maury Sterling as the Tremor Brothers (Think of the Three Stooges, if they were heavily tattooed, psychotic and filled with PCP).
"Smokin' Aces" is the story of Buddy "Aces" Israel (Jeremy Piven), a magician who has no choice but to become a government witness in order to save himself from spending a lifetime in jail.
The only problem with this is that the mob doesn't want him to testify and puts out a million dollar hit on his life.
This, of course, brings every hit man and outright thug from across the globe to cash in on Buddy's life. Standing in the way and the only chance for survival is an F.B.I.-headed task force (led by Ryan Reynolds and Ray Liotta) whose only chance of making their case against a prominent Mafia crime family is to make sure Buddy remains breathing.
This movie has a great cast of established and up-and-coming Hollywood talent.
Everyone from Andy Garcia to newcomer Alicia Keys is in this movie, which leads to the movie's first of many problems.
With such a large assortment of talent at their disposal, the filmmakers have a hard time introducing all these different characters, and give them adequate film time to flesh out their characters and make them interesting to the movie- going audience.
In fact, on more than one occasion, I had trouble keeping track of who was who and what they were doing in this movie. This isn't to say that there isn't some stand-out performances to be found in "Smokin' Aces." Reynolds is a joy to watch act opposite screen vet Liotta.
Keys also gives a notable performance as hit woman Georgia Sykes. "Aces" is Keys' first movie. Although, for some strange reason, towards the end of the film, she seemed to forget she was performing in "Aces" and started to channel Whitney Houston in "The Bodyguard."
Also of note were the performances of Chris Pine, Kevin Durand and Maury Sterling as the Tremor Brothers (Think of the Three Stooges, if they were heavily tattooed, psychotic and filled with PCP).
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