Movie Review: Smokin' Aces
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What Parents Should Know
Parents need to know that this fast-paced shoot-'em-up isn't
for kids. While its combination of over-the-top violence and
sardonic attitude produces a certain sort of humor, it's full
of bloody injuries and destruction. Most of the characters --
assassins, law enforcement officers, gangsters, bounty hunters,
and bodyguards -- are experts in lethal violence who use
everything from guns and knives to explosions and disguises.
Lots of smoking and drinking, and several characters do drugs
repeatedly and excessively (mostly cocaine, but also marijuana
and pills). Characters discuss sex, women wear revealing
outfits and "play" prostitutes, a young boy develops a "comic"
hard-on while showing off his martial-arts skills, and two of
the assassins are lesbian lovers. Incessant swearing (over 100
uses of "f--k," plus other language, including the "N"
word).
Families can discuss the film's multiple sets of partners (professional, familial, and romantic). How do these characters try to protect each other in the face of horrendous aggression? How does the film portray the FBI as being corrupt? How does the agents' corruption compare to that of the gangsters and assassins? How does the film pull together its many plot strands? Does the film offer any sort of commentary on action movie conventions in its excessiveness? At what point does movie violence get to be too much? Who's the judge of what's acceptable and what's over the top?
Common Sense Media Review
SMOKIN' ACES mashes together enough characters and
storylines for at least four movies, all with plots and
characters revolving around a Vegas card trickster named Buddy
"Aces" Israel (
Jeremy
Piven). An odious, self-absorbed, and emotionally weak
Vegas "celebrity," Buddy's the sort of stereotypical character
that other gangster/cop movies set off as secondary. But here,
Buddy -- in a fit of fear for his life -- decides to give up
his mob associates to the feds, which means he's now the target
of any number of killers, all seeking the $1 million prize
offered by aging mafioso Primo Sparazza (Joseph Ruskin).
The third film directed by Joe Carnahan (his last film, Narc , was a darkly evocative consideration of masculine intimacy and loyalties), Smokin' Aces offers broadly differentiated assassins who compete with reckless, ugly abandon. Also in the mix are FBI agents Richard Messner ( Ryan Reynolds) and Carruthers ( Andy Garcia), assigns them to capture Buddy before he's killed but doesn't quite fill them in on the details of why and how they're supposed to protect the snitch. As the plot unfolds, Locke's treachery becomes clear.
Buddy's hiding out in his (not very) secure penthouse suite. But despite the guards stationed outside, he's not very well protected by his bodyguards, distrustful Ivy ( Common) and incompetent Hugo (Joel Edgerton). Several bands of hit-people are headed his way, including bounty hunter Jack ( Ben Affleck) and his two pals, a trio of skinhead brothers (with big boots, lots of tattoos, and an astonishing array of weapons), and tough-chick lesbian killers Georgia ( Alicia Keys) and Sharice ( Taraji Henson). While several men watch the ladies with lascivious glee, the women tend to ignore them -- at least until one hot-pantsed partner appears swept off her feet by a very handsome male. Tensions ensue.
This incomplete list of players doesn't quite indicate the pile-on of firepower that will converge for the final showdown -- not to mention the convolutions of plot that draw everyone to the same location (betrayals, mishaps, sinister designs, etc.). Repetitive and unsurprising, the movie careens along with a galumphing zip, unabashed about its lack of sense even as it sets up a "clever" payoff that's visible from a mile away. Most of the characters have just enough screen time to mouth off with some venom, then die spectacularly.
Fans might prefer the earlier, leaner, less-frantic versions of the same basic story, including Pulp Fiction and Snatch .
Common Sense Media is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing information to help parents make media and entertainment choices for their families.
