Smokin’ Aces wants to be a fast, funny crime thriller. It mostly manages the fast. The funny is a harder sell.
Joe Carnahan directs and writes this 2006 film, which follows a Las Vegas magician named Buddy Israel who decides to turn state’s evidence against the mob. A $1 million bounty is placed on his head, and every assassin in town wants it. The film runs 109 minutes, and it spends almost every one of them chasing Buddy across Lake Tahoe.
The cast is full of names. Ben Affleck plays Jack Dupree, a bail bondsman. Jeremy Piven plays Buddy. Ryan Reynolds plays Richard Messner, an FBI agent. Andy Garcia plays Stanley Locke, the FBI deputy director. Ray Liotta plays Donald Carruthers, another agent. Common and Alicia Keys make their acting debuts as Sir Ivy and Georgia Sykes, two of the killers chasing Buddy.
Trailer, via nomarmovie.
Buddy’s Deal
Buddy Israel is the film’s central character. He’s a magician who got too close to the wrong people, and now he’s trying to save his skin by testifying against the mob. His agent is negotiating an immunity deal with Locke, the FBI deputy director.
Locke wants Buddy alive. Primo Sparazza, the ailing mob boss, disagrees. He puts the bounty on Buddy’s head and sends a man called the Swede to bring back Buddy’s heart. That’s the whole setup: a man worth a million dollars dead, and everyone willing to collect.
The film moves quickly through its cast of killers. There’s Lazlo Soot, a master of disguise. There’s Pasquale Acosta, a mercenary. There are the Tremor brothers: Darwin, Jeeves, and Lester, three psychotic neo-Nazis. There are Sharice Watters and Georgia Sykes, hitwomen hired by Sparazza’s underboss. And there are the bail bondsmen Jack Dupree, Pistol Pete Deeks, and Hollis Elmore, who have been hired to capture Buddy themselves.
The Hotel Attack
The action starts in earnest when the bondsmen are attacked by the Tremor brothers. Only Hollis Elmore escapes alive. Later, Carruthers recognizes Acosta, disguised as a security officer, in an elevator. Both are seriously wounded in the ensuing gunfight.
Meanwhile, Soot gains access to Buddy’s penthouse, posing as his henchman Hugo. Sir Ivy, Buddy’s second-in-command, confronts Buddy for agreeing to inform on him and his entourage as part of the plea deal. Ivy is subdued by hotel security.
In Los Angeles, Locke abruptly withdraws from the deal with Buddy but does not inform Messner and Carruthers. The Tremor brothers reach the penthouse floor and attack the security team and Ivy. Ivy kills Jeeves and Lester. Buddy, learning Locke has terminated the plea deal, attempts suicide but is unable to go through with it.
The Final Chase
The film builds toward a climax where Buddy, Messner, and Carruthers face off against Sykes. Messner sets up a position around the elevators, and Sykes is cornered. Buddy, having learned that Locke has pulled out of the deal, tries to kill himself but fails.
The tension is real. The payoff is smaller than the build suggests.
The Cast Problem
The problem with Smokin’ Aces isn’t its premise. It’s the way the premise is handled. The film is crowded with characters, and the script doesn’t give any of them room to breathe. Buddy’s motivations are thin. Locke’s actions make no sense. The killers are mostly interchangeable.
The film is also inconsistent about tone. It wants to be a comedy, but the jokes land flat. It wants to be a thriller, but the violence is over-the-top and hard to follow. It wants to be a drama about loyalty and betrayal, but those themes get buried under car chases and shootouts.
The film was shot at Bally’s Lake Tahoe, then known as Caesars Tahoe, and called the “Nomad Casino.” It premiered at the 2006 Butt-Numb-A-Thon, a festival known for screening films that were difficult to market elsewhere. It was released in the United Kingdom on January 12, 2007, and in the United States on January 26.
The Cameos and the Reboot
Wayne Newton appears as himself in a cameo. Joe Carnahan, the film’s writer-director, makes a cameo as an armed robber at the beginning of the film.
The film was a commercial success, grossing $57 million on a $17 million budget. That’s a healthy return, though it didn’t earn enough to justify a sequel in the eyes of many critics. The 2010 prequel, Smokin’ Aces 2: Assassins’ Ball, was directed by P. J. Pesce and produced and co-written by Carnahan.
The Michael Shannon Story
One casting story stands out. Michael Shannon was originally cast as Darwin Tremor, but Carnahan fired him after he was rude to a costumer during a pre-production meeting. Carnahan then cast Chris Pine within 10 seconds of his audition.
“He brought a levity and humor that the scene needed, and he did it simply with his physical reaction, which was the key,” Carnahan later said. “That’s just an innate skill set that Pine is blessed with and is in such short supply.”
That decision worked. Pine brings a lightness to the role that fits the film’s uneasy mix of violence and humor.
| Role | Actor |
|---|---|
| Buddy Israel | Jeremy Piven |
| Richard Messner | Ryan Reynolds |
| Stanley Locke | Andy Garcia |
| Donald Carruthers | Ray Liotta |
| Sir Ivy | Common |
| Georgia Sykes | Alicia Keys |
| Character | Motivation |
|---|---|
| Buddy Israel | Wants immunity and to live |
| Stanley Locke | Wants Buddy alive, but pulls out |
| Primo Sparazza | Wants Buddy dead |
| The Tremor brothers | Want the bounty |
| Jack Dupree | Wants to capture Buddy |
Our Verdict
Smokin’ Aces is a competently made mess. It has a strong cast, a decent premise, and some genuinely tense sequences. It also has a runtime that’s too long for its own good, a script that can’t keep up with its ambitions, and a tone that keeps shifting.
The film is better as a curiosity than as a recommendation. It’s the kind of movie that rewards a second look at the credits, where the cameo appearances and casting stories are more interesting than the story on screen.
It’s a film that tries to do too much and ends up doing none of it well. The chase scenes are fast, but the destination is unclear.
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