Smokin’ Aces [2007]
Director: Joe Carnahan
Actor: Jeremy Piven, Ryan Reynolds, Ray Liotta, Andy Garcia, Common, Alicia Keys, Taraji P. Henson, Matthew Fox, Tommy Flanagan, Chris Pine, Kevin Durand, Maury Sterling, Joel Edgerton, Nestor Carbonell
God, if you love action-flicks that don’t necessarily have to be very believable, then this one is it for 2007. Basic (very basic) rundown; Buddy “Aces” Isreal, a Las Vegas entertainer with mafia ties, is testifying against the last real capo in America; Primo Sparazza, who orders a hit on him for the grand sum of $1.000.000. That type of money attracts some big fish, and so Lake Tahoe (where he’s holed up in the penthouse, surrounded by private security and his own squadron of thugs) suddenly becomes overrun by an ecclectic mix of assassins.
There’s Georgia and Sharice, two bad-boy girls that are up and coming assassins, having pulled off a Triad hit that put them on the shortlist of shit-hot assassins. Georgia (Keys) is the sexy face, while Sharice is the hard-hitting guns-n-ammo girl. They have a .50 cal rifle, fer chrissakes.
There’s Lazlo Soot, the master-disguise artist, ruthless and cunning, who manages to infiltrate the hotel and get closer and closer by killing people and assuming their identity.
Then there are the brothers Tremor, or “The Tremors”, three brothers (same mother, different daddies) who consider Mein Kampf as their bible and are completely nihilistic. They are well known for…eh…collateral damage. They will kill anything without a heartbeat, and they’ll do it with a bang. Guns, bombs, chainsaws, punk-rock and unintelligible screaming. _Nazi_ _nihilists._
Then there’s “El Estrago,” a.k.a. “The Plague,” who is known for his inventive ways of murdering people, daring infiltrations, and incredible cruelty. He’s an international man of mystery who has done contracts all over the globe, and for all manner of organisations and individuals, even the CIA. An expert torture-artist, who, when caught by authorities he chewed off his own fingertips so they wouldn’t be able to identify him.
And of course, then there’s the mysterious “Swede” that nobody seems to know anything about. A foreign hitman who hasn’t shown up on anyone’s radar yet!
Want to know more about these assassins? Then read the short, excellent article called The Seven Assassins of Smokin’ Aces.
Then there’s Jack Dupree (Affleck), a bailbondsman, who, together with his two ex-cop partners, is out to get Buddy Israel on a skipped bond. Affleck is fantastic is the handle-bar moustache wearing, rough-house bailbondsman.
And of course there’s the FBI; Carruthers (Liotta) and Messner (Reynolds) who are trying to get him into the Witness Protection Program before the assassins get to him. Sadly, they are cobwebbed by beauracracy, and even by their own boss Locke (Garcia) by what is consider “bureau politics.”
What follows I have only ever seen in my old Shadowrun games; complete and utter chaos. It’s great. I love it. :) People are trying to protect Buddy, people are trying to kill Buddy, and it seems that Buddy is just looking out for Buddy, and burning the goodwill of his buddies at the same time.
Special notice goes out to Common (formerly known as Common Sense), a Chicago-based rapper who plays Sir Ivy, Buddy’s lieutenant, who maintains a strange but refreshing code of honour, which is a mix between street and budo. He doesn’t get enough screen-time, but does a fantastic job.