SCREEN

Smokin’ Aces

Matthew Scott Hunter


Smokin' Aces begins with an extended preview for itself, jumps into more than an hour of over-the-top bloodshed and then wraps it up with five minutes of some of the stupidest exposition ever put to a motion picture. It's a lovingly crafted mess, but I have to give it this: It's never boring.

Vegas Entertainer Buddy "Aces" Israel (Piven), having grown too ambitious with his Sinatra-style, mob-life affiliations, has fallen out of favor with America's last big mafioso, who has ordered the recovery of Aces' still-beating heart. That's the short version of the plot. The long version's too convoluted to summarize. Suffice to say, the lineup of competing assassins and psychopaths ultimately out to get Aces includes a gang of neo-Nazis, a pair of hitwomen (one of which has more than platonic feelings for the other), an assassin who once chewed off his own fingertips to prevent identification, a pair of federal agents and a group of bail bondsmen, among others. The factions are introduced in bold letters with a 25-minute series of rapid-fire vignettes composed of witty banter and crazy violence. Then the movie begins.

It's a crowded ensemble, and you don't get to know any of the characters beyond their most cartoonish quirks, but as they converge on Aces' sleazy stronghold atop a Lake Tahoe casino, it's hard not to await the ensuing madness with giddy anticipation, especially when these fast-talking caricatures break out the extreme firepower and chainsaws. It's like watching a hungry crocodile and an angry polar bear thrown into a tiny cage—you don't have any reason to root for one or the other, but you watch with morbid curiosity to see which, if either, will emerge the victor, and you're captivated by the promise of a bizarre, grotesque and unique confrontation, no matter what.

After the silver screen has been permanently stained red with the blood of most of the cast, a plot twist is introduced, half of which is as predictable as the other half is ridiculous. One of the surviving federal agents then demands, "Make it make sense," which is the worst thing to ask. The best thing this movie has going for it is that it moves too fast to notice the plot holes. But with several minutes of flashbacks alongside Andy Garcia's voiceover, the film is revealed to be utter nonsense. At least it's pretty fun getting to that revelation.

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