Since evolving from mere child’s-play to a legitimate median of entertainment, video games have turned to the silver screen to beef up their digitized storylines. Titles like Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eaterand Killer 7 play out more like movies than Mario, with deep character development and plots compelling enough for players to sit through hours of cut-scenes just to see what develops next.
In the bizarre everything’s-connected-somehow realm of media, the Hollywoodizing of video games has also resulted in a slew of films aiming to imitate the console titles of yesteryear (some being based off video games themselves), ignoring the need for an intricate script for pure-adrenaline pulsing moments (see: Crank).
Aces ignores the notion of “developed plot” in favor of mindless gunplay, convoluted twists and piles of corpses that would make Grand Theft Autoblush. The movie tries to be a more bullet-ridden Ocean’s Eleven, but ends up one violent and vapid film confused at what it’s aiming to be.
Director Joe Carnahan’s latest focuses on FBI agents Richard Messner (Ryan Reynolds) and Donald Carruthers (Ray Liotta) effort to protect Las Vegas magician and mafia player Buddy “Aces” Israel (NU visitor Jeremy Piven) from a avalanche of killers out to collect a one-million-dollar bounty put on Israel’s head by the mob. The Feds head to Lake Tahoe to find the glitzy act before the baddies do.
The plot of Smokin’ Aces seems simple enough (good guys must stop bad guys), but Carnahan and Co. bog the feature down immensely. The most immediate weight is the circus-sized cast of characters, ranging from federal agents and bodyguards to zany groups like “female assassins who dress up like hookers and promote the ideals of feminism” and “neo-Nazi rednecks who carry chainsaws.”
These over-the-top characters are pulled straight out of an X-Box game (I’m thinking something by Rockstar) and, due to the abundance of players in Smokin’ Aces, none of the factions get the chance to develop in the slightest, the characters nothing more than generic archetypes running around a casino shooting each other, but the audience has no reason to cheer for any of them.
The film’s fatal flaw is violence. Massive casualties in cinema can be a powerful tool (see two of 2006’s finest, Letters from Iwo Jimaand Children of Men), but Smokin’ Aces treats the mortality of its characters as nothing more than a way to gore-up the movie. Everything about the deaths in Aces is unnecessary, from the Shamu-tank-sized amount of blood spilling around to the fact shooting someone a million times doesn’t kill them any better than one shot does.
The gunplay lacks any emotional impact and, since no character gets a chance to grow, nobody cares when any person onscreen gets gunned down (and a lot do). The onscreen-funeral home that Smokin’ Aces becomes almost seems like some sick satire of action movies, but it just ends up as a needlessly messy muck of bodily fluids and bullet shells.
No aspect of Smokin’ Aces shines. The action, as mentioned, is so over-the-top and gory it is just not enjoyable. The dialogue stinks just as badly (note to writers: using the word “fuck” as the only adjective does not equal a good script).
Plus, the film has no idea what it wants to be until three-fourths the way through. OK, it’s a comedy, I mean they’re making jokes (even though most of their rib-ticklers involve accidentally ejaculating onto expensive clothes or getting shot. Hilarity!). Wait, now it’s an action movie, because they are shooting at each other non-stop. Or it’s a drama, because something’s making Jeremy Piven cry. Who knows, and who cares.
The actors are there, but no thespian gets the chance to singularly shine in Smokin’ Aces thanks to a cast which seems just slightly smaller than the contestants on 1 v. 100. Since nobody really stands out, let’s just take a look at the film’s two biggest draws, the musical newcomers Alicia Keys and Common. Piano-siren Keys looms tallest over Aces’ corpse-ridden cast, playing sexy assassin Georgia Sykes. Her debut is surprisingly solid, and the film’s finest. Rapper-turned GAP billboard Common plays bodyguard Sir Ivy, and does a fine enough job portraying a soft-spoken badass, though it’s hard to gauge his performance, since his character has the same emotional intensity as a mime working in a cubicle.
When I was young, I used to play Goldeneyefor Nintendo 64 and just spend hours running over enemy troops with a tank, getting endless thrills from squishing Soviet soldiers. The folks behind Smokin’ Aces never grew up from that bone-crushing phase, and heaped half-assed dialogue and uninteresting characters into the malicious mix. Smokin’ Aces is nothing more than a violent romp with a paper-thin plot and stillborn characters. If you want mindless thrills, just play Doom, because Smokin’ Aces goes up in flames fast.